COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 327 



hounds were from Lord H. Bentinck. Lord Ports- 

 mouth gave me two very good bitches. I brought 

 four couples from Fife. I bought the Pytchley 

 draft from Payne. We also got some young hounds 

 from George Carter, Milton kennel. 



I got Joel Dunsmure as second horseman. He 

 had been with me in the Bicester country ; the best 

 second horseman I ever saw, long, thin and light, but 

 he was not steady. One day, at North Kilworth, I 

 sent him to get a shoe put on, and passing on my 

 way home I found him fast asleep by the fire in a 

 public, and drunk as an owl. I took away his red 

 coat, and left him there, and led the horse home. I 

 never saw him again. 



" London, 26th July, 1864. 



" My Dear Thomson, — 



" I have this morning received your letter 

 of the 2ist, and have written by this post to my 

 agent at Boughton to inquire as to my tenants 

 undertaking to walk some puppies. 



" I expect to be at Boughton on my way to 

 Scotland, and will see what can be arranged ; but 

 there is so much dissatisfaction on account of the 

 woodlands being left unhunted during the greater 

 part of the year, that I do not expect they will be 

 much inclined to take any puppies. 



"It is not your fault if this should be the case, 

 and I regret much that your efforts to hunt the wood- 

 lands regularly throughout the season should have 

 met with so decided a check. 



