1890] ME. EDWARD KNOTT. 203 



and many others were present, and a song, composed for 

 the occasion, was sung by Mr. H. Horley : 



See foremost, iu scarlet bright, brighter than gold, 



Rides Bradley, the pride of his race, 

 With Pidcock and fifty fine fellows as liold, 



As e'er knew the joys of the chase. 



In the old book by "Venator," almost the last entry is 

 an account of a meet of Mr. Drake's hounds at Priors 

 Hardwick, but the Rev. Mr. Knott having invited Mr. 

 Bradley's staghounds, the old Squire never met there again. 



Mr. Knott once rode a very fast gallop from Badby 

 Wood to Priors Marston, when only Mr. Bevan, Edwin 

 Stevens (who had just come to the Warwickshire), and 

 himseK were with the hounds. He afterwards rode several 

 of Mr. Bevan' s horses. He once got into trouble when 

 riding his own chesnut horse, Devonport, with Lord 

 Southampton, jumping the Woodford Brook twice, and 

 pounding the Hunt servants. This may have been the 

 origin of the well-known scene between Lord Scamperdale 

 and Sj)onge, described by Surtees. Another run he 

 remembers was when Mr. Drake's hounds met at Fenny 

 Compton Wharf, and they found at Freckleton Sj^inney, 

 and ran over the Leamington Road, and near where 

 Watergall Gorse is now. Mr. Knott, Mr. George Hitch- 

 cock, afterwards of Hinton; and old Mr. Hitchcock, of 

 Horley, were with the hounds. When over the two brooks 

 Mr. William Cowper,* Mr. Knott's uncle, and the late Lord 

 Knightley cut in, and were first up at Burton Hills, the 

 hounds having run very fast over Northend Fields. They 

 turned short at the hills, and killed at Farnborough. 

 They did not draw again, and the hounds passed through 

 Banbury before the clock struck twelve, as mentioned in 

 the Field at the time of Lord Knightley's death. 



* Mr. Knott's uncle, Mr. William Cowper, of Farnborough, was one of the finest 

 yeoman riders who ever crossed Wai'wickshire or any other shire. Mr. Henry Chaplin, 

 when a pupil at the Rev. Mr. Furneaux's, of Walton, was told when he came into 

 Warwickshire to follow him. He said he did his best, but that he could not always 

 keep him in sight. He always rode well-bred horses, and nothing stopped him that any 

 horse could jump. 



