M}\ William Ange7^ stein. 255 



seemed to be the element most courted by tliis somewhat 

 eccentric Norfolk Squire. Not having occasion to deny 

 himself the possession of any horse he fancied by the 

 price demanded for him_, he rode nothing but weight- 

 carrying animals of high quality. Mostly a trifle " on the 

 leg " (and none the worse for that), with a bit of temper of 

 their own, they invariably were or became magnificent 

 fencers, the result of the schooling they had to undergo. 

 The soothing tones and endearing language in which Mr. 

 Angerstein was wont to address a young one on approach- 

 ing a fence, with a deep diapason and changed vocabulary 

 which greeted the ears of the animal if he fell, were 

 highly amusing, if not edifying. To the moralist it 

 afforded food for reflection upon the imperfection of 

 human nature, the outcome of the fall of man. Here, a 

 Saint on one side of a " post and rail '^ became a Sinner 

 on the other, and it was made painfully olear that the line 

 dividing virtue from its opposite was no thicker than a 

 slip of wood. In spite of constant apparent efforts to the 

 contrary, the tenant of Kelmarsh Hall was only occa- 

 sionally detained at home by accidents in the field, and 

 '^ the arm in a sling '^ and the " bound-up shoulder,^^ 

 were far less frequent objects for sympathy than might 

 have been expected. 



On leaving Northamptonshire, the late member of the 

 " P.H.^' established, on the principle probably of ^^ half a 

 loaf being better than no bread,^' a pack of stag-hounds 

 in Norfolk ; but he was not long in making the discovery 

 that the pursuit of the deer in an essentially non-hunting 

 country, and that of the fox over the big pastures in the 

 neighbourhood of Crick or Market Harborough are enjoy- 

 ments as distinct in their character as light from darkness. 



