MR. THOMAS HODGSON 199 



sixteen, and of the Ouorn for two seasons. Then for 

 about a season and a half he hunted his old Yorkshire 

 country, which he finally quitted in 1843, and this 

 brought him to about the age of fifty. 



As already mentioned, he was head of the poll by 

 thirty-two for the West Riding Registrarship at Leeds, 

 after a tremendous contest (in which 3393 people polled) 

 with one of the Lascelles family, and, patronising hunting 

 blood, huntsmen's sons found seats in his office. His 

 friends used to ask him in chaff whether he chose them 

 for their handwriting, or whether he merely looked to 

 their backs, ribs, legs, and feet. 



After he returned to Yorkshire he seldom if ever 

 spoke of the Ouorn, or if he did, he soon went back to 

 Holderness and its foxes again. He occasionally went to 

 the hound shows, and was always seen on the Doncaster 

 stand or on the drag of some hunting friend beside the 

 course at York. At the Doncaster meeting before his 

 death he looked uncommonly well, but he told a friend 

 of his of the death of his old brood-mare Eclogue, and 

 added, " It is an omen for me" — and so it proved. 



