162 



Cranborne Chase. 



one, and just fitted to make very good deer hunters of, as the deer hunter's father 

 who lived in Charles the Second's reign, used to say that he was the only man 

 in the three parishes round him that boiled pot four times a week : the most 

 opulent of them only boiling pot every other day : but Mr. Good [i.e., the father] 

 from a superior fortune, or a superior spirit, would boil it four times, and so 

 have a hot dinner on the Saturday as well as Sunday. This did him the more 

 credit as he was not disposed to be extravagant, having stopped up a chimney to 

 save one shilling a year that was paid to Government for Hearth-money. 



" This ancestor, however, was considered to be in such affluent circumstances 

 [though he held only about £200 a year under the Earl of Pembroke] that he 

 afforded his sons a very good education and his son the deer hunter was bred up 

 at the Free-School at Wimborne at the time Mr. Bankes, his Brother Henry 

 and Mr. Chafin, M.P. for the county, were there. With these gentlemen he 

 lived in great intimacy. 



" The family has been a very long-lived one, though the deer hunter disgraced 

 it a little by dying at the early age of 72 : his father having reached 92, and 

 scarcely one of them dying under 85. The deer hunter's widow died at the age 

 of 87. Whether the deer hunter owed his premature death [72] to his exploits 

 with the keepers in Cranborne Chase, or to his imprudent withdrawing from that 

 scene of activity to an indolent life at Shaftesbury at the persuasion of his wife, 

 cannot be determined ; but it is imputed to the latter cause by his son, the Rev. 

 Dr. Good of Wimborne from whom all this information is derived." * 



Of this Mr. Henry Good— the central figure of that singular 

 group — Mr. Chafin gives us the following account : — " I knew him 

 well in the early part of my life, and have had the great pleasure of 

 listening to him for many hours, for his converse was exactly con- 

 genial to my feelings and propensities. Very many stories of his 

 own exploits in the sporting way were truly acceptable. He found 

 me to be an apt disciple of such a teacher, and it made such an 

 impression on my tender mind as the length of time has not worn 

 out .... He was well versed in history, never forgot any 

 thing, had a taste for poetry, was particularly fond of Milton, and 

 — Hudibras. He was well skilled in the science of music, and a 

 good performer on various instruments. He was a constant visitor 

 at Lord Windsor's at Moyle's Court in Hampshire, where his 

 company was much appreciated, not so much for the accomplish- 

 ments just mentioned, as for his great skill in all the sports of the 

 field. He understood the breaking-in of dogs and the management 

 of nets, better, perhaps than any other person in the kingdom. He 



* See " Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries," First Series, vol. iv. t p. 47. 



