rsers 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.

His lordship was perhaps the first man who was ever made mad by country
sports, though many a man has been made a beggar by them; and none but
fools will waste their time on them. His lordship at length became
unquestionably mad, and was put under restraint. At length, while still
in confinement, and in a second access of his disorder, having
ascertained, by some means or other, that one of his favourite
greyhounds was to run a match for a large sum, he determined to be
present at the performance. Contriving to send his attendant from the
room, he jumped out of the window, saddled his piebald pony with his own
hands, all the grooms having gone to the field, and there being no one
to obstruct him, and suddenly made his appearance on the course, to
universal astonishment. In spite of all entreaties, he was determined to
follow the dogs, and galloped after them. In the height of the pursuit,
he wa