84 The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Pi'esent. [chap. m. 



against the wall with his lame leg slightly raised, watchiog 

 the performance, while an amused and half-envious smile 

 lit up his genial face. 



Race ^'^ Ordinaries ^' were in vogue in those days, and 

 the Squire not being a Rechabite, the dancing followed 

 so immediately upon the dining that there was scarcely 

 time to put on the armour of sobriety before the fiddles 

 struck up. Take him altogether, it is probable that a 

 better ^' all-round '' man never lived, but in no one 

 thing did he appear to have been superlatively good. 

 \^ riding to hounds he had many superiors, as he 

 also had in hunting them ; at cricket he was not good 

 enough to figure in the eleven of England ; and as a shot 

 he was not the equal of Captain Ross or of the Hon. G. 

 Anson. Sprung from an old Yorkshire family, Mr. 

 Osbaldeston had all the education and advantages which 

 are the birthright of the children of wealthy parents, 

 and was sent to Eton, and afterwards to Brazenose 

 College; the latter, equally with the former, failing to 

 elicit any sigu of a predilection for classical learning. 

 At the earliest possible moment he shook from his feet 

 the dust of chapel and of lecture-room. Though not 

 quick in mastering the secrets of the Latin tongue, 

 nor in construing the metres of a Greek play, the 

 Yorkshire squire was far from lacking in ability. With 

 much natural acuteness, he speedily acquired a know- 

 ledge of anything upon which he cared to bestow his 

 attention; and hounds and horses were the earliest 

 objects of his interest. By strict adherence to the best 

 principles in breeding, by selecting as sires the choicest 

 blood of other kennels, and by rigidly rejecting every 

 puppy that did not seem likely to reach his standard, he 



