LORD SEFTON 79 



Mr. Charles Wyndham. Others, however, declared that 

 the sport had been up to the average, and that the 

 farmers and members of the Hunt had never been on 

 more amicable terms ; so which story is the true one, 

 it is impossible to say. Nevertheless rents did not 

 fall, for small houses were let at ^200 a year, and the 

 accommodation was meagre in the extreme in many 

 cases. 



Among the shining lights of Leicestershire about this 

 time was Lord Villiers (afterwards the fifth Earl of 

 Jersey). He was born in 1773, 1 and before he reached 

 his majority knew his way over Leicestershire pretty 

 well, consequently he hunted in the time of Mr. Meynell. 

 Lord Jersey enjoyed the reputation of being one of the 

 hardest, boldest, most judicious and elegant horsemen 

 that ever crossed Leicestershire or any other county. 

 But he rode grand horses, up to much more than his 

 weight, and he was probably the only man who ever 

 rode a Derby winner as a hunter. This was the 

 Duke of Grafton's Tyrant, by Pot-8-o's, the winner 

 of the Derby in 1802. He was a strong, short-legged 

 horse of great stoutness, but he won no race after the 

 Derby, and, as he proved utterly useless at the stud, 

 Lord Jersey, taken by his make and shape, bought him 

 for a hunter, and a capital bargain he turned out, for he 

 took to jumping in the kindest manner possible, and on 

 one occasion, after an excellent run from Shipton, his 

 lordship declared that he believed Tyrant had jumped as 

 high as the ceiling. Besides this Derby winner, how- 

 ever, Lord Jersey had many other good horses, and 

 perhaps his favourite hunter was a chestnut horse named 

 Cecil, which he rode for several, if not many, seasons 

 without getting a fall. He was not only ridden in a 

 snaffle bridle, but was a snaffle-bridle horse — the two are 

 not synonymous, as a high authority has pointed out — 



1 He died on the 3rd October 1859. 



