30 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



This is not quite fair; as Mr. Hore tells us that the 

 Common hunt, under the mastership of a Mr. Cuttenden, 

 was showing good sport in 1723. By this time, how- 

 ever, many members of the Common hunt hunted 

 with the Buckhounds, not perhaps at Windsor, but about 

 Bushey and Kichmond and Hampton Court, and Mr. 

 Hore pleasantly describes a celebrated hunting alderman, 

 Humphrey Parsons, twice Lord Mayor of London, and a 

 predecessor of Colonel Thornton, Mr. Chaworth Musters, 

 and ' Jacob Omnium ' in the forests of Chantilly and Fon- 

 tainebleau : 



' Towards the end of the reign of George L, Humphrey 

 Parsons became very conspicuous through an incident which 

 took place when he was hunting with the staghounds of 

 Louis XV. in the forest of Fontainebleau, in the month of Sep- 

 tember, 1725. On this occasion we are told that Alderman 

 Parsons, " being mounted on a spirited English horse, contrary 

 to the etiquette of the French Court, outstripped the rest of 

 the field, and was first in at the death. The king enquiring 

 who the gentleman was, one of the adulatory attendants 

 indignantly answered that he was ' Un Chevalier de Malte.' 

 The king, however, entering into conversation with Alderman 

 Parsons, asked the price of his horse, upon which the Chevalier, 

 with true politeness, answered that it was beyond any price 

 otherwise than his Majesty's acceptance. The king could 

 not resist the acquisition of so perfect a hunter, even upon 

 such terms ; consequently, it was duly deHvered at the royal 

 stables. As a quid ^ro quo, Louis XV. gave Alderman 

 Parsons — who was a famous brewer— an exclusive monopoly 

 of serving the French nation with his Extract of Malte, 

 yclept in the vernacular * London Stout.' " ' ' 



Somerville, to whom the first Lord Fitzhardinge always 



' History of the Buckhounds, by J. P. Hore, ch. xii. pp. '20-1-5. 



