with Mr. Osbaldeston in Leicestershire; Charles Davis had not yet been gazetted as huntsman of the Royal Buckhounds, and received his King's orders to "breed them so fast that they can run away from everybody;" Mr. Ralph Lambton, with his boxwood horn, and his Forrard! Yi Haro! and the Earl of Darlington on his grey Ralph were the Nimrods of the North; and John Scott was busy putting a polish on the Houldsworth lot in the quiet glades of Sherwood Forest. It was a day of mighty fox-hunters-of Tom Smith, John Warde, Musters, and Sir Richard Sutton; but the Young Squire of Notts soon made his mark, and as years went on, Foljambe and Foxhunting" was a toast which always stirred the blood. The best kennels were glad to come to Grove for a change of blood; and many a quiet little parliament was held on its flags, and matches and sweepstakes for a roll of scarlet cloth decided, for which stakes had been made at Boodle's. If a master was forming a pack under difficulties, or had a loss in the middle of the season, Mr. Foljambe could generally help him out, as Mr. Tom Hodgson used to say, with "some waifs and strays." For a man who loved the sport so ardently, and cared only to watch the working of hounds, blindness was indeed "a sorrow's crown of sorrows;" but marriage to his first love helped to lighten the blow, and break the double solitude of his life. He could still ride to cover, led by a servant, and listen when "so cheerily they found him, so gaily bustled round him," with something of his old rapture. About racing he troubled himself very little; and, although he always entertained Earl Zetland (who was his confederate during his three seasons on the turf), Mr. Williamson, and a large party at Osberton during the Doncaster week, he seldom cared to go with them, and spent the day with her ladyship, walking down to Scofton farm, or knitting garden nets. His racing life may be said to have begun and ended with the produce of General Sharpe's game old mare, Myrrha by Whalebone, who "only gave her tail a wag," and defeated the fitful-tempered General Chassé, for the Ayr Cup, amidst the greatest racing sensation that snood or plaid ever knew. She was in foal to Sir Hercules at the time of her purchase; but the doublecross of Whalebone did not do much for her produce, Queen of the May. Ellen Middleton, by Bay Middleton, was her next year's foal, and she won two or three very smart races, with Job Marson up, but did not care for more than a mile and a quarter, She was trained, like Queen of the May, in the Aske stable, and was ridden in the "spots" instead of the light-blue and black cap of Osberton. "Ellen" was a big and very beautiful mare; and as she was sold and became the dam of Wild Dayrell, Mr. Foljambe might well say that his Sparkler and Herald had done their part by some of the best kennels of the day, and that he could also claim his niche in the racing world through Buccaneer and Brigantine. Later in life, Mr. Foljambe became more interested in his Scofton farm, and always kept well abreast of the times. With a difficult soil to till, "He knew the auguries of coming change, and liked to have every machine about him of the best kind. No stacks were better thatched and trimmed; and in the dryest season his agent, Mr. Woods, could invariably show a luxuriant green crop. Sheep were long his prime delight, and he loved to handle them as carefully, as if they were a foxhound on his trial for the second draft. Nothing escaped him; and Mr. Jonas Webb was wont to say that he wished he could be made judge at the Royal and Smithfield Club for the term of his natural life. He had a flock of both Southdowns and Leicesters in his park. The former were his favourites; but the latter for five years, in the teeth of very strong competition, took the gold medal or silver cup at the Smithfield Club. London and Birmingham were his Christmas fields, and this year he was not a little pleased when he heard that he had "split" Lord Walsingham and Lord Sondes in the light-weight class of Southdowns. Of late years he had done a great deal with Shorthorns, and began his Booth blood by hiring bulls from Mr. Carr. Robin opened the ball for him by beating, solely through his very superior handling, Mr. Fawkes's Friar Tuck, the first-prize Royal bull-calf, when they met at Doncaster; and Knights of the Bath and the Garter have made their names known since then in still wider fields. His white cow Cherry Blossom won a first prize at Smithfield last year, and proved to be in calf with a white heifer. About three months after calving she died very suddenly, and we believe that "The Squire's" last walk to his farm was to learn the particulars. This was about a month before his death, and he was soon afterwards seized with bronchitis, from which he could never wholly rally. Still, he retained his interest in all that was going on, and he saw both Mr. Woods and his herdsman shortly before his white ox and the Southdowns went to London, and inquired with much of his old zest if they seemed up to the mark. To those who had not seen him for some time he seemed to be gradually failing; but no great change took place until forty-two hours before his death, when he fell into a state of complete listlessness. Dr, Gull was consulted; but the strong man was bowed at last. He was buried at the church which he erected in his own park to the memory of his first wife, and on Thursday week a large and sorrowful crowd-rich and poor commingled-from all the country round stood by "The Squire's" grave. TOPSTALL. A PRIZE HUNTER, THE PROPERTY OF MAJOR BARLOW. ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY E. CORBET, BY CASTOR. Topstall, bred by the late Mr. Corbett, of Elsham, near Brigg, Lincolnshire, in 1860, is by The Cornerstone, dam by Rocket, grandam by Old Orion, great-grandam by Old Gray-by Old Ruler. The Cornerstone, bred from Lord Exeter's stud in 1852, is by Cotherstone, out of Valance, by Sultan, her dam Velvet, by Oiseau-Wire, sister to Whalebone, by Waxey. The Cornerstone never ran, and although he is credited with the winner of a hunter stake or two in The Calendar his services at the stud have been chiefly confined to country-side mares. We ourselves never saw him but once, and then under somewhat peculiar circumstances. We were acting as one of the judges at a show in the Midlands, where a short class of " stallions for getting hunters" without any other conditions was introduced. Our "learned brother," a very hard man over the Shires, took to a coarsish underbred looking animal as we thought, while we ourselves, for want of a better, fancied a neat, nicely-topped horse, showing plenty of blood, but set-off by a pair of middling forelegs. We were so widely a-part that a referee had to be called in, who, without a moment's hesitation, decided in favour of the big brown. This turned out to be the cock-tail British Statesman, while our choice was The Cornerstone, the sire of the prize-hunting horse of his day. Topstall was sold by Mr. Corbett at five years old with two others for a thousand guineas the lot; and the horse went in turn by means of a London dealer to Mr. Talbot, now Master of the Ledbury Foxhounds, but who at that time was hunting a pack of harriers on his property in South Wales. Topstall got here the character of a fine flying fencer, but he did not take kindly to the banks in Glamorganshire; while he was considered far too valuable a horse to be risked at such schooling as is required in those parts. Nevertheless, Mr. Talbot, in exciting finish, rode Topstall into a ruined stone cottage with the rou off, and nothing for it but a standing jump out again of some five feet, when the horse cut his hocks severely by dropping too close to the wall. In 1868 Topstall, with a certificate of being one of the soundest winded horses ever examined, went back to London, and thence into Warwickshire, where Captain Barlow bought him, originally we believe, for Lord Hastings' stud. On the break-up, however, at Don |