Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846Various
History
Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
One of his lordship's conceptions was, that of training animals to
purposes that nature never designed them for; and, if lions had been
accessible in this country, he would probably have put a snaffle into
the mouth of the forest king, and have trained him for hunting, unless
his lordship had been devoured in the experiment. But his most notorious
attempt of this order, was a four-in-hand of stags. Having obtained four
red deer of strong make, he harnessed them, and by dint of the infinite
diligence which he exerted on all such occasions; was at length enabled
to drive his four antlered coursers along the high-road. But on one
unfortunate day, as he was driving to Newmarket, a pack of hounds, in
full cry after fox or hare, crossing the road, got scent of the track.
Finding more attractive metal, they left the chase, and followed the
stags in full cry. The animals now became irrestrainable, dashed along
at full speed, and carried the phaeton and his lordship in it, to his
great alarm, along the road, at the rate of thirty miles an hour.
Luckily they did not take their way across the country, or their
driver's neck must have been broken. The scene was now particularly
animating; the hounds were still heard in full cry; no power could stop
the frightened stags; his lordship exerted all his charioteering skill
in vain. Luckily, he had been in the habit of driving to Newmarket. The
stags rushed into the town, to the astonishment of every body, and
darted into the inn yard. Here the gates were shut, and scarcely too
soon, for in a minute or two after the whole dogs of the hunt came
rushing into the town, and roaring for their prey. This escape seems to
have cured his lordship of stag-driving; but his passion for coursing
grew only more active, and the bitterest day of the year, he was seen
mounted on his piebald pony, and, in his love of the sport, apparently
insensible to the severities of the weather; while the hardiest of his
followers shrank, he was always seen, without great-coat or gloves, with
his little three-cocked hat facing the storm, and evidently insensible
to every thing but the performances of his hounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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