SEASON 1878-79 125 



been following the lines of two good foxes. A 

 typical character of the old school, his sayings and 

 doings savour more of the times of Squire Western 

 than with the manners and customs which obtain 

 in these " degenerate days," as it is the fashion to 

 call them. He seldom rode hard in the morning, 

 excepting to covert, on his hack, often turning up 

 with a scratched face, smashed hat, and clothes all 

 over mud. By the afternoon he would warm into 

 activity, and could slip along over a country with 

 the best of them. A staunch fox-preserver, in his 

 enthusiasm for the chase it is said that he once 

 had a whole fox served up for dinner. But a 

 better story is told of him when a brother sports- 

 man went to dine, and for a practical joke he had 

 a fox's tongue garnished and sent up on a dish. 

 Under an assumed name it was thoroughly enjoyed 

 by the unsuspecting guest ! But on this occasion 

 he met more than a match in his old friend the 

 Rev. Thomas Heathcote, who returned the com- 

 pliment by asking the Colonel to dine, and gave 

 him a Roland for an Oliver. A dainty dish was 

 set before him in the shape of a tapioca pudding, 

 of which the Colonel partook. " I am glad you 

 enjoyed it," the host remarked, "for it was not 

 tapioca at all, but frog spawn off my pike pond." 



All through the month of December this season 

 there was much delay for winter and rough weather, 

 but the new year was ushered in under conditions 

 most favourable for sport, and a nice gallop was 

 enjoyed from Melton Spinney by way of Scalford 

 and Chadwell, whose brook was soon having the 



