COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 107 



and blew off some of his fingers. Billy Clark, who 

 lived at Chudleigh, also had a pack of beagles, and 

 we used to have joint hunts over Haldon Heath. 



Edward Sanders had a farm on Dartmoor named 

 Brympts, where we stayed. William Fortescue took 

 his harriers there, and I took my beagles. The rest 

 of the party were Reid, Rev. Fitz-Taylor (brother of 

 Lady Carew and Lady Willoughby de Broke), the 

 Rev. Henry Fortescue and Logan Downes, one of 

 the best horsemen I ever saw. Most of us slept in 

 the same room. 



Tom French, an old sportsman, slept in what he 

 called "the long feathers," the hay-loft. He caught 

 trout for us before breakfast, and found hares during 

 the day. We hunted every day, and one evening 

 attended a wrestling match at Two Bridges, near 

 Dartmoor Prison. 



After leaving Brympts, on returning to Exeter, 

 I was driving tandem, and the wheeler tumbled down 

 going down a hill. I was all alone. The first thing 

 to do was to let the beagles out and then unharness 

 the leader and get the wheeler set on his legs. 

 After I had done that I saw something on the 

 ground which looked like a black pancake, and 

 found they had been rolling on my hunting-cap. I 

 do not quite remember, but I think the shafts were 

 broken, for I rode into the town of Ashburton on 

 the leader, followed by the beagles. After a time 

 the beagles did not get on fast enough to please me, 

 so I sold them to a company of bank clerks at Liver- 

 pool, and they became the Royal Rock Beagles. I 



