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In the anxious efforts to respond to the wishes of her master, the worthy housekeeper is most assiduous in her department, and in her attentions to complete the character of the household.

Occupying a portion of his own estate, all the animals kept thereon are thorough-bred of their kind-cows, sheep, pigs, and poultry; in the latter of which much pains and care is conspicuous. The stud till latterly has been extensive, the produce of which has been invariably trained at home, and their performances confined to the immediate vicinity; a stake ever so small in amount, won by a horse bred by himself, and prepared by his own servants, affording far greater satisfaction than the winning the Derby would do by a horse purchased from another breeder, and trained by a public trainer. The same character of honourable liberality distinguishing him on the turf which has ever distinguished him in private life, has gained for him a most enviable reputation in the sphere of his engagements, and which report is diffused around a very extensive circle. In his personal appearance he presents the same marks of high breeding as his racing stock, and although most negligent in his apparel at home, when abroad he assumes the bearing of the most finished gentleman. The fumes of the nicotion weed have acquired a charm with him to a degree which doubtless affects his health, but where is the man who does not on some occasions suffer from the innovations of his pleasures? Although a master of hounds, he scarcely ever hunts; possessing excellent shooting, and formerly an excellent shot, he never takes a gun in hand; living on the banks of one of the most celebrated rivers in Wales, and formerly a first-rate fisherman, he never throws a fly; delegating these occupations to a servant who has lived with him many years, the aforesaid functionary enjoys amusements which many more aristocratically descended would be happy to be engaged in.

Like Lord Byron, he has selected the objects of his amours from the lower orders in life, and has thus avoided the existence of those feelings of remorse which might have arisen had a higher class in society at any time been the subject of his choice. Whatever feelings he may have, it is well known he never attempted the virtue of any woman to whom the loss of it could be productive of painful emotion; and although without a legitimate heir to his estate in the person of a son or daughter, he has a somewhat numerous progeny to provide for. In politics he is a most original character, highly popular on both sides: he will support a Tory in one county, and a Whig in the other, under the impression that he advances what he considers the general good of the community, and that its interests are more fully maintained by men of sense, good feeling, and honourable intentions than by the advocacy of any particular political principle. The estimation in which he is held, the attachment which exists from his tenantry, his household, and the country at large, is a far greater security to his person and his property during the present disturbances of Rebecca and her train, than all the soldiers, police force, or other protections which the authorities can establish.

In drawing this sketch, if I have approached so near to the original as to be the means of his numerous friends and acquaintance

identifying the person, I must observe that neither time or place are introduced, so as to lead them to a positive conclusion; and likewise if he for whom it is intended should happen to perceive it, he must exonerate me alike from the accusation of flattery, and the expounding of truths which lead to character, because under the envelopment of the present signature he is not justified in assuming who may be the individual who subscribes himself.

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THE LATE C. J. APPERLEY, ESQ.-(NIMROD).

BY CYMRO.

"Gaudet equis Canibusque."
"The Horse and the Hound."

It is a common observation that few men rise to eminence in a profession or pursuit without they have naturally a taste for what they themselves, or, as is too often the case, others, have marked out as their course in life; and with reference to this, it has been well said by one of the first critics of the day, that such as write on sporting subjects, and are true sportsmen, generally succeed in what they attempt to describe or narrate. No matter what may be their style, elegant or coarse, there is a heartiness and zest pervades it, not only pleasing to the brothers of the craft, but highly entertaining to the general reader. gives for this is, that they work con amore, their hearts going with their pens, and that they feel renewed pleasure while entering into details for the amusement or edification of others of those sports which have afforded themselves so much gratification.

The reason Mr.

To no one, I think, are these remarks more applicable than to Nimrod, who, though for the last twenty years a professed author, had lost little of that ardour with which he first entered on an active participation in the sports of the field. Let him have chosen his own subject in conversation, and horses and hounds would have soon been on the carpet; and here, as in his works, no one could be more amusing, abounding in anecdote and information; indeed, I think it would have been impossible for him to have been long in any man's company without touching on his favourite themes, and of this he has himself given us an amusing anecdote.

Riding up to a friend's house in Wales, where he intended staying a few days, he was met at the door by his host, whose almost first words were" Pray now don't, if you can help it, in any way allude to horses or dogs this evening, for M, who is with us, has just returned from a sporting tour, and given us nothing but finds, runs, and so forth, for three nights in succession." Nimrod promised to

bear this in mind, but it need scarcely be added that the caution was in vain, for M- , seeing a new and so enthusiastic a listener, "fought his battles o'er again," terque quaterque beatus; while the remainder of the circle, who had witnessed the run of the runs, and the strength of the ruling passion, yawned at each other, no doubt ready to exclaim," Alas! iterum, iterum, iterumque."

It must, however, in justice be added, that Nimrod was far from

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boring his friends with subjects of which he himself never tired, unlike perhaps too many sportsmen, who in the opinion of some, the ladies particularly, have scarcely an idea inseparable from their horses and dogs. There was a man of this description well known a few years back about town, one of whose acquaintance, on seeing him approach, was wont to observe, "Now here comes a fellow who will talk for hours of nothing but horses, and when you think he has quite exhausted that subject, and begin to conceive hopes of his stopping, will start as fresh as ever on saddles and bridles.'

"Birds of a feather flock together," and when in company with brother sportsmen, Nimrod, as may naturally be supposed, expected to find an hour or so in the evening devoted to "the Noble Science" and other matters of the kind, though, as the following anecdote will show, which has never before appeared, he was at times disappointed. While in this country, on one of his occasional trips from France, he received an invitation to spend a fortnight with an old friend and brother sportsman, long celebrated for his crack pack of harriers, of which Nimrod has frequently spoken in terms of praise. Nimrod joyfully accepted it, and, promising himself a most agreeable sojourn, soon had the baronet by the hand. Unfortunately, however, there also happened to be in the house on a visit, a gentleman as good a performer on the violin as our friend was across the country, and who, to oblige the ladies, contrived to considerably shorten what is often termed the pleasantest half hour of the four and twenty, namely, when the ladies have retired after dinner. Here the half hour was literally cut down to half an hour, and then horses, hounds, and the claret all gave way, and a general move was made for the drawing-room, to hear again and again the strains of this rival of Paganini. Between the heats, Nimrod still attempted a conversation with his host, though just as he was in the middle of one of his best runs, or all attention to some remarkable fact which his friend had experienced-hush-sh-sh-sh ran through the assembly-hush-sh-sh-up went their heads, a long check spoilt a capital burst, and in place of it came another solo from that infernal violin! For three nights he tried and did endure the encores, but on the fourth, not having the patience of his Welch friend, he reluctantly bid adieu, to seek elsewhere more time for the music of the chase.

It is somewhat remarkable that the year immediately preceding his decease, Nimrod published his own "Life and Times," which commenced in the January number of "Fraser's Magazine" for 1842, and concluded in the December of the same year. To these papers I would refer such as have not already perused them, for not only a full account of his own sayings and doings, but for anecdotes and capital sketches of" characters," a genus Nimrod appears to have been unusually fortunate in falling in with.

The subject of our notice having so lately and at such a length given his own memoirs, it would be mere reiteration to dilate upon them here, and I shall consequently content myself with the following brief account.

Mr. Apperley was the second son of Thomas Apperley, Esq., of Plasgronow, in Denbighshire, but of a very old Herefordshire family.

This gentleman, from his literary attainments, was selected as tutor to the late Sir Watkin W. Wynn; both his sons were educated at Rugby, and soon after leaving that school, the second received a commission in the ancient British Yeomanry Cavalry, and joined them in Ireland; where, from their determined conduct during the rebellion in 1798, they received from the rebels the cognomen of "The Bloody Britons." On the Ancient British, and, in fact, the Yeomanry being generally disbanded, in 1801, Mr. Apperley married Miss Wynn, a cousin of Sir Watkin, and daughter of W. Wynn, Esq., of Peniarth, and went to reside at Bilton Hall, near Rugby, in Warwickshire, which I have already stated was the seat of the celebrated Addison, though what perhaps gave it greater charms in Nimrod's eyes was its capital situation for hunting, being within reach of the three crack packs of the day-the Quorn, then Mr. Meynell's, but, soon after Nimrod settled in Warwickshire, transferred to Lord Sefton; the Pytchley, with John Ward at their head; and the Warwickshire, or rather Mr. Corbet's, being kept entirely at his expence, and not a subscription pack until later than Lord Middleton's time. After a residence of two or three years at Bilton, Nimrod removed to Bitterley Court, Shropshire, and while there joined his friend, Colonel Gould, as captain in the Nottingham Militia. In 1817, he was living at Brewood, in Staffordshire, and it was here he first conceived the idea of publishing a work upon hunting, from the various memoranda he had collected; this, by the advice of a friend, he subsequently abandoned, and commenced, about the year 1822, writing for the "Sporting Magazine;" a periodical at the time little known, but which he soon brought prominently before the public. Soon after joining this work, he removed to Beaurepaire, in Hampshire, where he continued until the death of the proprietor of the magazine, when being most injudiciously pressed by those into whose hands the property had fallen, he was under the necessity of leaving this country, and retired to the neighbourhood of Calais, where he lived upwards of 12 years, returning, however, as he often said he should, to die, like the hare, in his own country. He bid adieu to the land of his banishment, and came with his family to London, in February last, and died there on the 19th of May, in the 65th year of his age.

I shall now proceed to notice his principal works, taking them, as far as I can recollect, in the order in which they appeared. For the "Old Sporting Magazine," to which he contributed about eight years, he wrote "The Condition of Hunters," afterwards published in a volume, the third edition now selling; "The Hunting Tours," which, with his "Letters on Riding to Hounds," have also been collected; "The German Tour," which he made in company with Mr. Tattersall; "Letters on Driving, and every subject connected with the Road," and a great variety of other papers; memoirs of celebrated sportsmen and jockeys; the history of the saddle; a few papers on ornithology, &c. The Hunting Tours, the first of the kind ever attempted, excited at the time of their publication unusual interest, and more than doubled the sale of the magazine: from the way in which they took, others have been induced to try their hands at sporting tours, but never with anything like proportionate success. Among these was Mr. Mills,

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