found myself in a Gentleman's park, where a number of men were at work repairing drains, and in the far end of which were the gallant runaways and the chosen few. Puggy had deservedly made his point good. The whole of this park was subdrained, the cuts connecting with one another, and to get him out was impracticable. For my part I was glad of it, for a more gallant or gamer fox never stood a day before hounds. This was Malvern Park, near the town of Solihull in Warwickshire; so, if a man will look at the map, the distance from Kidderminster to Solihull, over the Lickey, will give him some idea of this noble day's play. No man that I ever saw in any country rode with greater nerve, truth, and decision than did Mr. Edmund Probyn, who all in all did certainly play first fiddle; and he was as well carried by Judgment, a low, lean, strong-boned light-bay horse, but with extraordinary muscle; barely behind was Mr.Newnham, Col. Raikes, Green, and another or two, at least as well as memory serves me. As it became imperative for me to stable as soon as possible, I inquired my way to Solihull, but turned wrong, and coming to a bettermost and very neat looking road-side public house, entered the yard. I called in vain, but there was a great stir in the barn, and there I found him of the white horse, attended by all the household administering to his nag, who was prostrate, and nearly smothered in straw. That he was a man of despatch was evident, for he had already mounted a pair of the landlord's breeches, and sent his own of course to the tailor. Into this place of refuge and rest I entered, and as soon as ever the saddle was off down lay my mare. Thrown thus through mutual misfortune into one another's company, being men moreover about the same age and of similar pursuits, it was not much wonder that a day's intimacy did the work of many, and it led to a long and unbroken friendship until his death, poor fellow! a few years back. He was a Lincolnshire Squire, who had been staying at Malvern for the health of one of his children, and I subsequently spent many happy days with him at his residence in the moist county. The hounds, with Mr. Newnham and his party, got to Bromsgrove about dusk: here they left the hounds, horses, &c., and taking chaises, reached Henwick at night. It is a very singular thing that in all this run this gallant fox should have never been seen but momentarily, and that in the covert immediately after being found, when (as I have before mentioned) he was tally'd by Col. Raikes. It was the opinion that he was a Warwickshire fox, who had been rambling in the breeding season; but I do not think it, as he passed more than one strong covert, which it was natural to suppose he would have at least tried: but perhaps he was too hot, and had made up his mind, and pondered refuge" in the cool and inaccessible drains of Malvern Park. Be that as it may, I for one shall never forget him, for I never was so regularly gruelled; which being the case, it is high time to "cut my stick," and haul out of the line. Yours, &c. OLD HARKAWAY SIR, HUNTING SONG. Translated from a very curious old German Collection, BY THE HERMIT IN LONDON. THE Stag from the forest has broken away; And his hoofs are bespangled with drops of the dew. For his course is as airy and fleet as the wind: The hounds are unseen, while he looks back with scorn...... The horn not of plenty, but summons of death! O'ercome by their numbers his strength fades away, The horn sounds again, and exultingly cries MELTON MOWBRAY-THE FINISH ! BEFORE getting into the what we have done in Leicester vortex of London life, and having my nerves unstrung at Crockford's, either by taking too large draughts of sillery, or giving less palatable ones on the Duchess's far-famed house in the Strand, I am in duty bound to consume a little midnight oil in sending you a continuation of shire since I last wrote to you. Political excitement has had a most kindly influence on the Sporting World; and the tradesmen of Melton may now be considered competent judges of the blessed effects of the Reform Bill. Not only has the number of visitors been diminished, but nothing else is now talked of, in addition to the alluring topics of a "cheap Government," a "cheap King," and a "cheap Church," but a "cheap Stud!!" Horses have certainly decreased considerably in value, and few indeed have been actually sold at large prices, however highly some of them may have been estimated by their masters. Provisions also, both for man and beast, have followed the example, and fallen in price; and the high rents which have been extorted by the citizens of Melton for stabling have most deservedly caused several of the regular Sportsmen to build stabling for themselves. the "Invisibles;" and nothing used to delight him more, than if he had been thrown out in the first run, near the end of the day to find a fresh fox, and, when the rest of the field were riding beaten horses, to sail away alongside his hounds, and leave the rest of the field to their fate. Then with what zest over the mahogany of the "Old Club" did the "gallant Valentine" dilate on every yard of the run, and dwell on every hound and every hit which none but himself had the felicity to witness; thus filling his hearers' hearts with disappointment and sorrow, and their mouths with water instead of the juice of the grape! Maher was an excellent Sportsman; he understood the business of hunting perfectly; had an excellent eye to a country, and knew every field, and fence, and gap, and lane, in Leicestershire. He was a horseman, too, of the very first class, never "trashing" or knocking his horse about, and always bringing him to his fences in a quiet but determined manner, and going ever as straight as an arrow to his hounds. He rode every horse, I should also say, in a snaffle bridle, and was extremely powerful in his saddle, more particularly in his arms. In the choice of his horses he was not generally so happy; but so excellently did he handle them, that if he was fortunate enough to get away well with hounds, he could keep a good place with a bad nag. He placed more value on "jumpers" than "flyers," and hence his "fond hopes" were easier supplied among the low than the high-bred horses; and though he always had an unbounded supply of omnium, he Ꮓ Granting even that there may not have been any very sensible diminution in the number of visitors, there has still been a great want of gaiety and life among the Meltonians throughout the season, and I regret to say that some of our old Sportsmen are not likely to return to us again. Mr. Maher has bid Melton a last adieu, after a continual sojourn in Leicestershire during the season for nearly twenty years! Well do I recollect him making his debut in it, with some excellent horses, which he had brought with him from his native isle; and it may be truly said that no man ever crossed this fine country in a more sportsmanlike manner when he was in the days of his youth. For some years past, however, like the game he pursued, he has got old and cunning; and unless he had a good start, and could get cleverly away with his hounds, he never even attempted to go on. The principle that he acted on was either to be in the front rank or one of VOL. VII-SECOND SERIES.-No. 39. seldom bought a horse at a large figure, though he occasionally sold one to a select friend. Certainly the general appearance of his stud was seldom, if ever, very imposing he had horses of all sorts, and sizes, and shapes ; and I remember well, that when I happened to be at Melton with the late George the Fourth, then Prince Regent, who came over from Belvoir Castle on purpose to have a look at some of the farfamed studs, His Royal Highness expressed his astonishment, after casting his quick piercing eye over Mr. Maher's horses, that such looking animals could go the "pace" in Leicestershire! I cannot conclude these cursory observations on this distinguished Sportsman without expressing a hope, that at some leisure hour he may commit to paper his own account of his "Melton Life." By so doing he would confer on the Sporting World an inestimable favor, by presenting it with a most interesting and extraordinary document. Lord Francis Thynne is also on the list of final departures; and his stud, which is both very numerous and very good, is condemned to the hammer. His "resignation," however, is not to be attributed to advanced age, or a want of pluck; but the on dit is that horned cattle are at a discount! Seldom has there been a season when the country was so completely inundated as during the last Spring months; and the depth of the fields, whether pasture or plough, has given ample proofs of the value both of condition and of blood, and has afforded repeated opportunities to the ambitious of shewing their skill in "navigation" as well as in horse manship. "The Daily Press" was so inundated with the "royage" of Count D'Orsay that it is perhaps unworthy of farther notice. I only wish that I was blessed with the pencil of a Hogarth, and I would have sent you a series of sketches of the Count's plunge into and exit from the river, and of his streaming away full sail with a fine breeze before the wind over the green sod; one of his boots being torn to pieces, and his "inexpressibles" lacerated in such a manner as to expose the limbs of an Adonis! Short as his visit was, Le Beau D'Orsay and the Protocol were justly considered trumps" of the season. the I never could witness the Cossack grin of Matuschevitz when he came to a fence, that I did not sigh for the talents of a Cruikshank, that I might also have sent you a sketch of the physiognomical twitches of this Siberian Sportsman to illuminate your journal. He has now returned amongst the Barbarians of his native clime, the laudable objects of his "special mission" having been no doubt fulfilled; but he has left his stud in this country, publishing in all our newspapers that His Excellency" has gone to supplicate the great "Autocrat of all the Russias" for leave to return here next season-not to manufacture more Protocols, but to enjoy himself at Melton. Time will shew whether or not this be another piece of "Russian Diplomacy," or, to use his own more emphatic language, when commenting one morning at the covert side to Lord Wilton (if I recollect right) on some parts of my last communication to the Sporting Magazine, whether or not it turns out to be " a domnation lie!" On the whole the last month (April) has afforded better sport than any of the season with Sir Henry Goodricke's hounds. The Baronet having been displeased with some of my former observations on his pack-which, I must admit, were not all intended to be complimentary-gave a sullen look to every one he suspected to be a contributor to the Sporting Magazine; and I was amused to hear him halloo to a suspected author, "Hold hard!" adding in the same "Almack" tone, " put that in your BOOK, and be d-d to you!" The Cottesmore Hounds have on the whole considered this season an inferior one; and it is generally admitted that Lord Forester has had some of the best days during the last weeks of it. Though horses, as I have already stated, have suffered a decrease in price, there has been, to balance it, in many studs a most unaccountable increase in the longitude of their tails-a whim, in my opinion, only calculated to vulgarise the ugly, and to destroy the beauty even of the most beautiful in creation: and when you are told the history of this new mode (of which a specimen is to be seen in Ferneley's late pictures, and in the stables of most hackney-coachmasters), you will smile, I think, at the ease with which the fashion is set at Melton. The plain fact is, that Mr. Maxse, who has been for some time on the "superannuated Meltonian list," and whose pace diminished as his years increased, at last got together a stud of coach-horses, and, in order to give these quadrupeds what the dealers call a "blood appearance," he allowed their tails to grow in this, to my mind, most unbecoming manner; and, strange to say, and no doubt to his own astonishment, was directly imitated! Some of our bright Meltonians, too, in imitation of what they must have seen in the Cockney Hunts round London, have endeavored to make a change in the costume of the field, by the substitution of a common coat for the old and sportsmanlike "red rig." It is to be sincerely hoped, however, to use the language of the effeminate Doctor Clark, "their labours will prove abortive !" Wonders will never cease; and it is a miracle of no little magnitude that Mr. Neville's first of first-rate horses, "Old Grey," should be now eclipsed in everything that is miraculous by his new horse, the "Grey Knight," without "the old-'un" having lost one fraction, or even particle, of his virtues. To behold 'Squire Neville sailing along a deep field, and taking a line of gates, on this most extraordinary animal, is indeed a spectacle worth looking at; and the "Grey Knight" is universally allowed to be the Premier of Leicestershire. was well observed, the other day, by an accomplished and excellent judge, in his enthusiastic admiration of the Knight's figure and performance, "that he reminded him in grace and gesture more of Taglioni than of any other living being; and that there was a poetry in his movements only to be seen at a Divertissement of the Opera!" The Grey Knight, I should add, is a thorough-bred horse, by Sir Harry Dimsdale out of Lady Georgina, is full of sym It |