2 EAPvLIEST EEMINISCBNCES. 



Prom a large white rocking-horse, standing in 

 that same old oak hall, I can well remember also 

 being transferred to the back of a living Avhite 

 pony, with a servant to lead it about the grounds. 



Such are mv earliest reminiscences : and it is 

 strange how indelibly impressed on the mind are 

 these incidents of our infantile years, when others 

 of later date and far greater importance have long 

 since faded from our memory. My father and 

 grandfather were genuine sportsmen of the olden 

 time, particularly the former, who, as heir to more 

 than ten thousand a-year landed property, had 

 kept his racers (by which, under his own jockey- 

 ship, he had won over twenty cups, and pieces of 

 plate, besides stakes), his hunters, and pack of 

 hounds ; it is no wonder therefore, that being thus 

 bred, I should have manifested such an early predi- 

 lection for horses and hounds. 



My father's original pack was composed chiefly 

 of the late Lord Egremont's blood; their height 

 averaging twenty-three inches (the standard of 

 the Bclvoir fox-hounds), and from their perform- 

 ances they were equal in speed and quickness to 

 any of the present day. As an instance, I may 

 notice their extraordinary rapidity in drawing large 

 thick coverts, through which they dashed as fast 

 as the whipper-in could trot by their side ; and 



