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And there sits at my side, enjoying his chop, Tom Firr, described as the king of huntsmen a true and honest sportsman, simple, respectful, and respected, whose name I will not omit from my list of celebrities, for he is as worthy of a place in my reminiscences as any M.F.H. you could meet.
He was riding brilliantly at fifty-eight, in his last season with the Quorn, when he met with an accident which compelled him to resign his post. With Lord Lonsdale as Master, and Tom Firr as huntsman, the Quorn possessed two of the most perfect horsemen who ever crossed Leicestershire.
Sir Robert is described as "lately one of his Majesties Council for the Kingdom of Scotland," and we may therefore justly assume his account to represent that of a cultured, observant person of his day and generation. The account begins by remarking that the "most ordinary trees" found in the western islands of Scotland "are Firr and Ash."
Some will use Anniseed in the Bag, and some use a little Musk with the sweet Fennel Seeds, or else distil the Spirit twice, viz., once with the sweet Fennel-Seeds, and the next with a little Musk. N.B. The wooden Vessels, or open Tubs, must not be made of any Wood that is unwholesome, or sweet-scented; such as Deal, Firr, or Manchineel.
"The trees," he says, "are all extremely large and in general very tall and chiefly hard wood; no Spruce, Pine, Firr, &c. Neither is there underwood of brush, you may drive a Cart and Oxen thro' the trees. In short it looks like a Park as far as ever your eye can carry you. The pine trees fit for large masts are farther back and bordering on the small Rivers as I am told by the Indians.
Observe and understand it so of Copper, that the form of Venus Body is so stated as that of a Tree, which abounds in Rosen, as the Larch Tree, the Firr, the Pine, Deal Tree, and other sorts of Trees more, the Rosen of the Tree is its Sulphur, which it evacuates at sometimes by reason of its superfluity, for it cannot bear it all; such a Tree which is tinged with abundance of fatness, by the digestion of Nature and the Elements, burns quickly and freely, and is not ponderous, nor so durable as is the Oak, or other hard wood which is close and compact, whose Pores are not so open, as those sorts of light wood, and wherein the Sulphur doth not so predominate, but the Oak hath therefore the more Mercury, and a better Salt than the Pine, Firr, and Deal trees have, and such wood doth not float so well above the water, as the Deal, being bound & closed up compactly, so that the Air is easily prevented in bearing it up.
In some Parts of the North, they take one or more Cinders red hot and throw some Salt on them to overcome the Sulphur of the Coal, and then directly thrust it into the fresh Malt or Goods, where it lies till all the water is laded over and the Brewing done, for there is only one or two mashings or stirrings at most necessary in a Brewing: Others that Brew with Wood will quench one or more Brands ends of Ash in a Copper of wort, to mellow the Drink as a burnt Toast of Bread does a Pot of Beer; but it is to be observed, that this must not be done with Oak, Firr, or any other strong-scented Wood; lest it does more harm than good.
He praised my riding and promised he would mount me any day in the week if I could only get some one to ask me down to Brackley where he kept his horses; he said the Grafton was the country to hunt in and that, though Tom Firr, the huntsman of the Quorn, was the greatest man in England, Frank Beers was hard to beat.
These hounds were selected by the late Tom Firr, from the Quorn, Cottesmore, and Pytchley, and they accounted for fifteen brace of jackals from November to March, hunting only two days a week, and after having had several good runs.
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