Captain Mildmay Clerk. 261 



held in a sort of awe, and liked him ever after- 

 wards. 



To a; friend who, on his way home from hunting, had 

 praised a glass of fine old Madeira brought to the door of 

 his hospitable house, he sent on the following day six 

 bottles of the same bin, with a card on which was the 

 legend, " Petroleum for your hunting-flask/' 



Though it never lay in his power to give high prices 

 for his horses, so complete a master was he of the art of 

 getting across a country and of riding to hounds, that he 

 never failed to hold a good place in any run ; nor did he 

 ever lose a start by giving way to the snare of " Coffee- 

 housing." His motto was ^' pauca verba ;" and the man 

 caught up by him on the way to cover, or on the return 

 home after hunting, stood little chance of being *' jawed 

 to death.^' 



Whatever else might have been laid to his charge, he 

 never could have shared the fate of Miss Jex Blake, who, 

 at the close of one of her somewhat tedious harangues, 

 heard a wearied listener say, that he had long known that 

 " Le^o" was the Latin for " Xaw," but never knew till 

 that moment that " Jex " was Latin for ^' Jaw J' 



Not strong constitutionally, he never cared to spare 

 himself, and be the distance ever so far, or the weather 

 ever so bad, the '^ uncheery one " never failed to be at 

 the Meet on every hunting-day. Ill-health overtook him 

 when little past his prime, and when he finally succumbed 

 to an enemy, against whose attacks he had many a time 

 unsuccessfully grappled, not only was the feeling that the 

 Pytchley Hunt had lost a notable and much appreciated 

 member generally recognized, but the regret was uni- 

 versal and profound. 



