COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 353 



and treated us hospitably, and most kindly offered 

 me a hack if I wished to leave my horse, but he was 

 not tired, and carried me home quite cheerfully. He 

 carried me more than two hours, and never made a 

 mistake — a pretty good trial for a five-year-old. I 

 had gone on for an hour and forty-five minutes with- 

 out a whipper-in, or having the hounds turned to me 

 once. Captain Clerk, who was the only man who 

 went through on one horse, helped me through 

 Market Har borough ; all the rest of the way we 

 jogged side by side, and the hounds trotted along 

 with their sterns up. It was a fine, mild, quiet night. 

 I stopped every three or four miles, and called them ; 

 they all came round me, wagging their tails, and 

 trotted on again. We got to the kennels, eighteen 

 or nineteen miles, about ten o'clock. 



At Lamport I met all the party starting for the 

 Harborough ball. My wife returned, and waited 

 while I went to Brixworth with the hounds, got a 

 hack and galloped back to Lamport. I met Dick 

 with " Usurper," just as I was coming out of Brix- 

 worth. I sat down to dinner at ten minutes to 

 eleven o'clock, got to the Harborough ball at 12.30, 

 and remained two hours. I was very little tired, 

 and was at Ashby St. Ledgers by twelve o'clock 

 the next day. 



After I changed horses with Dick ^ at Glooston, 

 he came on with Mr. Hay's horse to the top of 

 Hallaton Thorns, but finding he could not go the 



' R. Roake had been second horseman with Mr. Tailby, and was 

 thoroughly well acquainted with the country. 

 VOL. I. 23 



