272 REMINISCENCES OF 



an obstacle over which Mr. Murray Honey came to 

 great grief and cut his cheek badly. Lord Roberts 

 also got his nose very severely scratched by a tree. 

 Ronald lost his hat, and I think Colonel Hamilton's 

 horse refused. Anyhow, M. d'Estournelles was the 

 only one perfectly triumphant. On being introduced 

 to my father, he took off his hat with a courtly 

 sweep. My father said, " You must excuse me, sir ; 

 I cannot move my cap, for my eye is stuck in it ". 

 (He had a single eyeglass screwed into his hunting 

 cap.) " Ah, then you will know me when you see 

 me again," was M. d'Estournelles' answer. The 

 Raith party lunched at Balcarres and then came on 

 here to Charleton. 



In the meantime Isobel, Evelyn Anstruther and 

 I had had some food, and sat out basking in the sun 

 on the steps in front of the house. It was a most 

 lovely sunny day, and it seemed strange to think 

 that precisely a week before (Saturday, 24th Sep- 

 tember) we had all been shivering in bitter east wind 

 and a snowstorm. When the Raith quartet arrived 

 we showed them my father's picture painted by Sir 

 Francis Grant and presented to my father by the 

 Pytchley Hunt in 1870. They also greatly admired 

 the picture of my brother Charlie in his Life Guards 

 uniform, painted by Mr. Lorimer, and the statue of 

 Arthur by Dalou. Isobel presented her baby 

 Rachel, and M. d'Estournelles inquired whether she 

 had any little "bothers". Isobel, thinking he must 

 mean teething fits, croup or such like, answered, 

 " Oh, no ; hardly any ". It then turned out that he 



