HUNTERS 79 



point out the spot where the fox had been seen to slip in. 

 That was one of the fastest runs I ever saw, and all through 

 deep-ploughed fields. There were plenty of well-bred 

 horses out which got better away with the hounds, but 

 could not live with them at that racing pace, and it needed a 

 Derby horse to reach the pack, and live with them to the 

 end. What would be my recollections now, if I had been 

 mounted on the vaunted animal with one cross of blood ! 

 I fear the memory of that run would not have remained so 

 vivid for forty-one years. 



Four years later the scene was changed to Galway, in the 

 heyday of that prince of huntsmen, the late Burton Persse 

 of Moyode. The Meet of the far-famed Blazers was that 

 day at Clonfert, the seat of Archdeacon Butson, and a large 

 field was assembled there, for in addition to the usual 

 members of the Galway Hunt there were many strangers 

 from the Westmeath, King's County, and Ormonde Hunts, 

 who gladly seized the opportunity of a hunt with the 

 Blazers, when for once they met within reach. We quickly 

 found, and it was immediately evident that there was a tearing 

 scent, as the hounds flew over some large grass fields, girt 

 with stone walls. I was riding Kettleholder, then seven years 

 old, who as a three-year-old was heavily backed both for the 

 Cambridgeshire and the Koyal Hunt Cup at Ascot. He was 

 half-brother to Elland, who won the Ascot Vase, and his 

 sire was Kettledrum, winner of the Derby. His dam was 

 the famous Ellermire, one of that wonderful family bred by 

 Admiral Harcourt from Ellerdale of whom Ellington won 

 the Derby, Summerside won the Oaks, while Gildermire ran 

 a dead-heat for the Oaks ; and a few years later, in 1868, 

 the daughter of her own sister Eller, the beautiful Formosa 

 ran a dead-heat with Moslem for the Two Thousand Guineas 

 and further won the One Thousand, The Oaks, and also 

 the St. Leger. Ellermire herself was a notable winner, and 

 her most memorable race was thus described, many years 

 after the event took place at York : — 



" A couple of seasons later the County Plate supplied one 

 of the most stirring contests of its kind that I can remember. 

 The stake was of 15 sovs. each, 5 sovs. forfeit, and the added 



