“Hounds bustled her through Mr. Taylor’s covert and were close behind her, and would without doubt have repeated our feat of the previous week of killing three hares in one day, when bang! was heard followed by a volley of oaths from Lock, and we found a sportsman (?), Mr. Haynes by name, had shot our hare in front of the hounds. Lock immediately called upon the field to place our shooter in a duck pond which was near; but the latter thought discretion the better part of valour, making off as hard as he could go.”
Before we close this period there are two letters to be recorded, the first from Mr. C. M. Black, first whip in 1896.
“I have been looking over old Chronicles and old photographs—in fact, to quote from J. K. S., I have been raking the glacier of years gone by, but really I am afraid my rake has not produced anything very exciting. I ran with the beagles for four seasons and was in the photograph for three years. I don’t know whether you still have a photograph, but in my time one was always taken of the Master, whips and a selection of the ‘first flighters,’ and when fairly junior one was very pleased at being asked to come up for the photograph.
“1894 was a fairly good season. H. B. Creswell was Master, the whips being T. D. Pilkington, who was killed in the South African War, Maurice Atkinson-Clark at my Dame’s (Hale’s), who died during the same war, and E. R. Davson. We had some very good runners that year, amongst them being G. A. Hodgson, D. O. Dunlop, G. D. Baird and Harold Chapman. The last-mentioned was also at my Dame’s. We always ran together and were generally near the front. He was fourth and I fifth in the School Steeplechase that year. In 1895 I turned the tables on him, for I was third to his sixth. He had left by 1896 when I won it. There were two ‘bills’ that year, the first to Wooburn, the Gilbeys’ place; I did not go there, but I went to the other—about the end of February—Maiden Erleigh, the Hargreaves’ place near Reading. We had an excellent day, killed one hare and should have killed another, but it ‘disappeared’ near the station after a fast run. I fancy some loafer picked it up! Bear Hargreaves, as he was called when at Mitchell’s, rode that day (he had left Eton), and I remember holding on to one of his leathers when I was getting beat. We were nobly entertained at the house afterwards, and it was a first rate day altogether, one of the best I can remember.
“In 1895 there was a meet near the beginning of the Half, and then not another till well on in February. It was the year of the long frost after ‘the floods.’ I rowed in Trial Eights that year, so I missed the hunting in the latter part of the Half. G. S. Hodgson was Master, and A. W. F. Baird, D. O. Dunlop and Jerry Ward the whips that year. Hodgson and Dunlop were magnificent runners, and were famous for running a dead heat in the Mile.
“In 1896 Jerry Ward was Master. Poor fellow, he was killed in the late War. I was first whip, the others being Charlie Cavendish, killed at Diamond Hill in South Africa, and Timmy Robarts, of whom I have lost sight. I think we were very unlucky that season. So far as I can remember, we had a considerable number of days when there was little or no scent—owing to cold winds and rain. Jerry Ward made an excellent Master and he knew the country well. He and I had run for several seasons. He left hounds to themselves and let them work out their line, and did not continually lift them, as is so often done. We were all very keen, and I feel sure that with a little more luck we should have had a good season. As it was, I believe it was one of the worst on record. We were also very unlucky with fresh hares. I can remember fresh hares getting up in front of hounds on several occasions when we had our hunted hare done.
A DISAPPOINTING FINISH.
“The holes in the Stoke Park palings were a terrible stumbling block in those days; hares continually used to baffle us by reaching them and ‘safety.’ I don’t know whether they bother you still.
“I remember a good hunt being spoilt by a retriever dog at Langley Village. It chased our hare into some nursery gardens, in which we later found it again. A. D. Legard, Robin Lubbock, who died a few years later from a boating accident, Henry Burroughes and the two Pawsons were amongst the first flighters that year. I had to row again in Trial Eights, which cut my season short, and in the photograph of a meet I see A. D. Legard is carrying a whip—the famous Grenfell brothers are in that photograph too. Old Lock was going strong all the time, his knowledge of the country was marvellous, and he always turned up at the right place. He ran a Turkish Bath too. I used to visit it, as I was bothered with rheumatism, and the old fellow used to pommel you to bits after the bath.”