Sir Ramald Knightley. 293 



statistics, to a fellow-sportsman who had just divulged 

 that on that day he had reached his sixty-sixth birthday. 

 *^ Sir," said the Jobean comforter, " I congratulate you, 

 but I must tell you that sixty-six is a very ticklish age/' 

 He then pondered as if reckoning up tables, and 

 continued : ^' It is a fact that there are more people 

 die at sixty-six than at any other time of life." The 

 haste with which the recipient of this encouraging and 

 cheerful piece of intelligence made off may easily be 

 imagined. His emotions on the occasion must have been 

 much on a par with those of an old man in Northampton 

 Street, who after placing his ear-trumpet so that he 

 might hear a friend^s remark, was told, " You are 

 breaking very fast, John." Each of these speeches might 

 serve to illustrate one of Mr. Punches inimitable pictures 

 of ^^ things that a man had rather not have said." 



A fifty years' experience in the hunting-field cannot fail 

 to tame down that keenness for the sport which to many a 

 young sportsman makes a high-day and holiday of every 

 hunting- day. In his sixty-seventh year, Sir Hainald 

 cannot be expected to evince the same enthusiasm in 

 hunting as he did when it took a very good man to catch 

 him or Mr. Frederick Yilliers, in a sharp forty minutes 

 from Braunston Gorse or Dodford Holt. He is still, 

 however, to be seen at any Meet within reasonable 

 distance of home ; and from the class of horse he 

 continues to possess, it is clear that he adheres to his 

 old principle, that " no one should ride a brute but a 

 beggar or a fool." 



The stranger, whether attracted by a Meet of hounds 

 or in search of the picturesque, who sees Fawsley for the 

 first time, cannot but be impressed by the feeling that he 



