GEORGIAN STAG-HUNTING 37 



In the latter half of the eighteenth century the fathers 

 of the gentlemen in top-boots, who in Mr. Eeynolds' picture 

 are watching with gloomy dignity the last stage of the 1832 

 Keform Bill in the House of Lords, were just beginning to 

 see where their real influence and interests lay. Even the 

 great revolution families whom power and office kept con- 

 stantly in London were always anxious to get away. Politics 

 and hunting entered together upon a new phase of their 

 existence. The former began to realise the country, the 

 latter to catch the tone and fashion and style of the town. 

 No doubt country life had always kept a strong hold of 

 the English character, and the Court was neither splendid 

 nor amusing. ' No lone house in Wales with a mountain 

 and rookery is more contemplative than this Court,' writes 

 Mr. Pope. But such a keen observer as Lord Hervey, quite 

 as professed a lover of the town as Dr. Johnson or the Duke 

 of Queensberry, speaks despondingiy of ' the rural epidemic ' 

 madness which was becoming chronic. 



I never came across any mention of the Master of the 

 Buckhounds either in Lord Hervej^'s ' Memoirs ' or in 

 George Selwyn's letters. In the latter, however, there are 

 frequent allusions to hunting, and the following witty descrip- 

 tion of a weight-carrying pony for sale might have been 

 written yesterday. Writing to George Selwyn from Win- 

 chester, in April, 1767, Sir E. Smyth tells him that a Dr. 

 Thistlethwaite is dead and his horses are to be sold : 



' Amongst them is a little bay gelding, about thirteen or 

 fourteen hands, with flaming full long tail, strong enough to 

 carry you, the mayor, and all the money you ever spent in 

 elections at Gloucester together. The Doctor, some forty- 

 eight stone, always shot off his back, and the keeper killed 

 all the deer from him. I mention this as a proof of his 

 sedateness. He goes fast enough to carry you close to fox- 

 hounds in full chase ; but if your affairs do not require 



