Mr. Ambrose Isted. 247 



hippie heroes of the past j and the ''Maid of Orleans/' 

 bought from Lord William Compton on his quitting* 

 Harleston, still occupies a warm corner in the heart of 

 the present Marquis of Northampton. 



A great breeder of hunters, Mr. Isted was never so 

 happy as when mounted on the produce of some valued 

 mare, the last named being one of the most prolific of his 

 much-cherished mothers. Inheriting sporting instincts 

 from a long line of ancestors, no one more thoroughly 

 enjoyed hunting with all its pleasant adjuncts. In all 

 manly sports, however, he took great delight, and rare 

 bird, beast, or plant never escaped his attention and 

 remark. 



The sporting magazines and the daily journals found in 

 him a very constant reader ; but the rare volumes with 

 which the shelves of the Ecton Library are so abundantly 

 stored had no especial charms in his eyes. Tailing off in 

 his riding as he advanced in years (fences seem to grow 

 less and less negotiable as the hair gets thinner), Mr. Isted 

 began to give up the distant Meets, and to commence upon 

 the " currant jelly ^^ business, into which he entered with 

 much spirit. 



Getting together a tolerably level and useful- looking 

 lot of small harriers, he assumed the horn himself, 

 utilizing as his Whip his old keeper Daniel Tassell. The 

 latter, a thorough original, did not at all appreciate his 

 elevation to the pigskin, and for many a day would com- 

 plain greatly of cuticular abrasion, and of his master's 

 want of feeling in not supplying him with sticking- 

 plaster, bees-wax, or some still more adhesive compound, 

 for the more satisfactory performance of the fencing part 

 of the business. Mr. Isted naturally had some difficulty 



