Squire George Osbaldeston on Ashton with Sir Francis Holyoake Goodricke on Crossbow, by John Ferneley Snr (1830)
unparalleled shot with a rifle, beating horse racing records, being the finest foxhunter in the land and generally risk-taking like a frenzied honey badger. That he was an outrageous cur and irascible bounder to see him through all this is a given. That he made it to old age at all remains a mystery. Born on Boxing Day 1786 as the only son of five children, Osbaldeston’s parents inherited a great uncle’s estate at Hutton Buscel, near Scarborough. His father had the cheek to die when George was only six, and although the estate was left in trust to him, his mother thought nothing of dipping deeply and frequently into the well and squandering it, because those political society parties were not going to host themselves. The usual path of Eton was tried, but he brilliantly got himself expelled within a year, most likely for being himself. Still, he once recalled, ‘“I could beat any boy single-handed at cricket, and any boy my age in fisticuffs.”
Despite his behaviours, dependable contacts got him a place at Brasenose College, Oxford, but he continued to display a complete allergy to studying, as well as pouring hot gravy over the heads of students or masters he took a dislike to. Obtaining an actual degree never appeared to feature anywhere in his plans, but he was known to play billiards for 50 hours straight. He had also bought his first foxhounds, and this was to be the true love of his life. For nearly 30 years he spent a fortune moving from one famous hunt to another as its Master: 1810, the Burton, Lincolnshire; 1813, the Muster’s pack; 1815, the Meynall and Atherstone, Derbyshire; 1817-1827, the Quorn, Leicestershire; 1827-34, the Pytchley, Northants. Each move involved the enormous expense of purchasing the Mastership, which included the running costs of stables, kennels and men and renting a gentleman’s residence for the season.
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