Thomas Godwin. 365 



This story he generally coupled with one of Jebb, 

 the groom, who was commissioned to bring a donkey 

 from Heaton Park to Melton. At Chesterfield the 

 donkey died, and either for an excuse or under a 

 solemn belief that he was doing his duty, Jebb came 

 on the forty miles simply to announce the lamented 

 decease. In his heart he did not blame the lad for 

 seeing that journey through, which he himself enjoyed 

 so much each autumn and spring. His good nature 

 and jocularity made him quite a popular character in 

 the towns and village on his route. A more business- 

 like man never kept a stable key. He gave his horses 

 a good deal of work before his lordship rode them, 

 and after a very hard day a few drachms of aloes, but 

 always on their return from hunting as much warm 

 water as they would drink. Oatmeal he detested, 

 owing to the trouble he once had with a pony from 

 using it too freely ; and he seldom physicked a horse 

 without flinging him a batten of straw for him to pick 

 over and keep himself in action with. He rode long 

 in the stirrup, and always holding his snaffle rein 

 shorter than his curb, and with the heel of his hunting 

 boots not deep, but remarkably extensive ; and his 

 mode of getting on horseback was exactly the reverse 

 of Rarey's. When his day was over, his noble master 

 pensioned him handsomely, and he lived in Heaton 

 Park, in a little house near the old course. When we 

 saw him he was seventy-two, and he seemed to be fail- 

 ing fast. He did not live much more than two years, 

 and died at Melton during one of his annual visits to 

 the old spot, whose cemetery holds the remains of this 

 right good and faithful servant. 



Chapel House lies five miles from Liverpool, on the 

 Aigburth and Garston road, about a quarter of a 

 mile from the banks of the Mersey, which bounds it 

 on one side. The Welsh hills tower above the woods 

 of Hooton and Eastham, which run down nearly to 

 the opposite shore ; steamboats go churning on their 



