“In this pursuit I (Colonel Thornton) sunk more than once, into a quagmire, where the prince’s whipper-in some years since, was hesitating whether he should go to the assistance of some hounds which had got an old stag at bay, but on his master’s asking if he were afraid, he immediately dashed in and sunk to rise no more.” It is indeed reported, that neither himself nor his horse were ever found.
One of the sons of Gosden, whose father was celebrated as the bold rider of Datchett, was out upon his favourite poney with the king’s stag hounds; he came to a part where the present D—— of C—r—d, was refusing a leap, when the bolder son of Nimrod, without thinking of the importance and rank of the person he was addressing, exclaimed, “Stand away, and let me take it, a pretty sort of a duke you are.”
He (the huntsman) died, some time since, at Duffry-hall, the seat of Cæsar Colclough, Esq. at the advanced age of ninety-six, near sixty years of which he passed in the Colclough family. He acted in the triple capacity of huntsman, steward, and master of the family. During the rebellion in 1798, he and his family acted with uncommon fidelity to their employers, as one of his sons, when Mr. C. was obliged to fly, came down to protect the house and property, and he never quitted his post. Another of his sons brought off horses and clothes to his master, at the risk of his life, when he was informed where to find him, and during that period the old man buried a large quantity of the family plate, which he afterwards conveyed to a place of safety.
Until the last year of his life he regularly went out with the hounds, and his voice retained its clearness and sweetness. He was well known to all sportsmen in that part of Ireland.
The celebrated Saunderson, professor of mathematics, at Cambridge, who was entirely destitute of sight, continued to hunt until a very advanced stage of life; his horse was accustomed to follow that of his servant, and the satisfaction of Saunderson was extreme when he heard the cry of hounds and the huntsmen, and which he used to express with all the eagerness of those who, possessing their eye-sight, could consequently be more gratified by the incidents of the chase.—Strutt—Beckford—Brown—Thornton—&c. &c.
Hunt, s. A pack of hounds; a chase; pursuit.
Hunter, s. One who chases animals for pastime; a dog that scents game or beasts of prey; a horse employed in hunting.