Page:The Hambledon Men (1907).djvu/301

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE GREAT 'SQUIRE'
229

the task so thoroughly that he obliterated also the names of the two other members beginning with his rather unusual initial. Said Mr. Budd to Mr. Wheeler:—'Often afterwards I could find that he regretted at leisure the act he had in haste committed; and, about a month after the event, I asked him if he would like to get his name on the list again, as I thought I could get it done. He said he should much like it, and I went to Lord Frederick and Ward, stating that I had a great favour to ask, would they grant it? And the reply was, "You have done so much for the game, there's nothing you can ask but we will grant." But on my explaining, they said "the insult was so great, they could not accede to my request."'

Mr. Osbaldeston died in 1866, in his house at No. 2 Grove Road, St. John's Wood, very near Lord's. Having taken to racing without much discretion he had lost his fortune, and he had lost his health too, perhaps having to pay for his great feats of endurance in the saddle. But his name will never die among hunting men. He could hunt six days a week; as a breeder of hounds he was inspired; and he was master of the Burton, the Quorn, and the Pytchley. The cup which was presented to him in 1834 by the Pytchley bore these brave words, and they were no idle compliment: 'To the best sportsman of any age or country'. When master of the Quorn Mr. Osbaldeston's chief whip was the great Tom Sebright, who to the end kept over his mantelpiece a copy of the engraving of 'The Squire' that is reproduced on the opposite page.

'The Squire's' shooting feats were not less remarkable than those in the saddle: he once killed 98 out of 100 pheasants, and backing himself (he always backed himself) to kill 80 brace of partridges in a day, he killed, says Mr. Budd, 97½ brace, while the 5½ brace which were picked up afterwards brought the total to over a 100 brace. And this before the days of breech-loaders. 'The Squire' won notoriety also by his duel with Lord George Bentinck in 1831, at Wormwood Scrubs, when