372 REMINISCENCES OF 



they had got rid of their talk they were unanimous 

 enough. As Knightley does not mean to hunt next 

 season, and it cannot therefore affect him, he is likely 

 enough to have seized the tempting opportunity of a 

 growl gratis. 



"It would take a lawyer's opinion to decide how 

 we all stand now, but I think it is clear that we give 

 you ;^3,300 for four days a week in the open. I 

 have sent circulars according to orders, stimulating 

 the subscribers to fresh exertions under the system 

 which has already fallen through. As, however, I 

 do not find in the answer the slightest tendency to 

 rise, I shall not distress myself on this point. 



"I go to Hooton either Monday or Tuesday, 

 according to my wife's arrangements for a move to 

 London, so fear I may miss you on the road. You 

 ought to go on Tuesday at latest, for the mug is run 

 for (I think) on Wednesday. 



" I hunted with Arkwright yesterday. Such a 

 sweet pack ! I think you would have said there was 

 very little more to be done to these bitches, who 

 worked like the squarest-headed dog hounds I ever 

 cursed, and so handsome. He expects to see you at 

 Cowper's Oak on Thursday. 



" Yours ever, 



"G. W. M." 



1866. — There was an idea that the forest should 

 be hunted by a separate pack of hounds, and George 

 Watson of Rockingham was quite willing to do it, 

 but Lord Cardigan was strongly opposed to it. 



