Sir Francis Bond Head. 3 1 5 



weight, lie could always hold his own with "the swells." 

 Neither distance nor weather, bar frost and snow, kept 

 him at home ; and the more it rained the higher his 

 spirits rose, as he always looked for a scent on the wet 

 days. The first at the Meet, he was always the last to 

 go home ; giving as an excuse for staying out on 

 utterly hopeless days that ^' it might end in something, 

 after all." Never so happy as when on horseback, to 

 him hunting was an enjoyment almost without alloy. 

 Like Lord Eldon, who used to affirm that there was no 

 such thing as " bad " port-wine ; there was " good " he 

 used to say, and " better,^'' but no '^ bad." So to Sir 

 Francis no day with hounds could be a bad one : it was 

 only "not so enjoyable as if it had been a better one.'' 

 The air — the exercise — the excitement — the fence with 

 the big ditch on the other side, were each and all distinct 

 matters of enjoyment, but the working of hounds did not 

 markedly catch his notice. Quick in making up his mind 

 under all circumstances, the house at Oxenden in which he 

 passed ten of the happiest years of his life — as he always 

 maintained — was taken in the same time that most peo- 

 ple would have occupied in looking over a four-stall 

 stable. Meeting the hounds at Farndon, before Waterloo 

 could be reached for the first draw, he trotted rapidly 

 ahead to view " the house to let," which fortunately lay 

 half-way between the two points. Thinking far more of the 

 possibility of losing the find than of finding a house to suit 

 his requirements, three minutes sufficed for the survey, and 

 the friend who accompanied him was requested to take it 

 for seven years ; to which three more were added subse- 

 quently. " Happy's the wooing that's not long a'doing/' 

 was well exemplified in this instance,, as the hasty pro- 



