Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
This, to them, unknown gentleman was Charles Gordon Grey, Esq. of Tracey
Park, near Bath, who was as communicative as our passengers could wish;
and the lady's, as well as the gaoler's, curiosity was gratified almost to
satiety. The lady has, however, candidly confessed to me, that, although
Mr. Grey was a great political opponent of mine, yet, altogether, his
account of me had prejudiced her in my favour; and she has related to me
many anecdotes of my life, that had totally escaped my recollection. One
of them was as follows, of which, I believe, Mr. Grey was an eye-witness,
and, therefore, could speak to it with perfect accuracy. I was, as I have
already informed my readers, always an enthusiast in any thing I
undertook, and in nothing more so than as a hunter. One day, at the end of
a very severe stag-chace, after a run of nearly thirty miles, the hounds
pressed the beautiful animal so close, that they caught him as he was
swimming over a deep part of the river Avon, between Salisbury and
Stratford. Myself, with the master of the hounds, Michael Hicks Beach,
Esq. of Netheravon, and two or three gentlemen, amongst whom was, perhaps,
Mr. Gordon Grey, were up with the hounds at the time; and we were all very
much distressed to see the noble animal, which was a large red deer, and
which had afforded us so much sport, becoming a prey to the hounds,
without it being possible for us to save him. Mr. Beach at first urged the
whipper-in to attempt it, but he declined, adding, that as he could not
swim well enough to encounter so many difficulties as he should meet with,
the hounds would certainly drown him, as well as the stag, if he were once
to venture into the deep water. While every one was lamenting in vain the
sad fate of the poor animal, which appeared nearly exhausted, as the
hounds had repeatedly pulled him under the water, I had slipped on one
side, hitched my horse's bridle to a stake in the hedge, and stripped in
_buff_, before the rest of the sportsmen had perceived what I was doing. I
sprang to the river's brink, plunged at once off the high bank into the
midst of the foaming stream, and swam to the assistance of the almost
expiring stag. The moment that I dashed head foremost into the stream, the
remainder of the pack, which had not before ventured into the watery
element, but had kept yelping and baying upon the banks, now to a dog
leaped in after me. None but those who were eye-witnesses of this scene
can have any idea of the danger in which I appeared to be placed. Many of
the hounds, that had been worrying the stag, seeing a naked man rise as it
were from out of the deep, for I had been obliged to dive several yards to
break my fall from off the steep bank, instantly quitted the hold they had
on the stag, and swam towards me, as if to seize upon more tempting prey.
My fellow sportsmen, who had scarcely recovered from their astonishment at
seeing me unexpectedly plunge into the water, and who now apprehended my
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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