COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 27 



And now along the vale 



Like pigeons they do fly ; 

 There is some timber in a corner 



Nearly five feet high ; 

 Now, says one, the first who goes 



Will come down with a crack — 

 But he is over like a pigeon, 



With the Master on his back, 



Is that slashing horse called " Iris," 

 One of the present date. 



Still on they go like lightning, 



Now there is no time to dwell, 

 The fences big, the country's deep, 



And the pace begins to tell ; 

 In another twenty minutes 



A wager I will bet : 

 The cock tails they begin to stop. 



And the swells begin to fret 



At that slashing horse called "Iris," 

 One of the present date. 



Now from scent to view they've raced him, 



He cannot longer wear — 

 Woo-hoop,^ he dies, a pluckt 'un, 



And the Master he is there. 

 Now here's success to Captain Thomson, 



Wherever he may go. 

 His equal in the hunting field 



We never more shall know. 



For he is king of all live sportsmen 

 Of the present date. 



John Robinson wrote rather a nasty article in 

 Land and Water describing the dinner, to which 

 Charles Newdegate replied in the St. James s Gazette. 



" Northamptonshire. — There was a remarkably 

 scanty attendance of Northamptonshire squires at 

 the dinner last week, when Captain Anstruther 



'The " woo-hoop " is to be holloaed in the usual way when a fox 

 dies. 



