RIGHTS OF COUNTRY. 89 



such ;is these were part of his nature. He was suspected 

 of payii\(i- off a grudge against a neighbouring M.F.H. by 

 a raid upon his country. An old Puckeridge fox hunter 

 who is still living remembers meeting with Mr. Conyers's 

 hounds rmming from Northey Wood, Anstey, to Cave Gate, 

 on the Barkway Road. The huntsman was recognised by 

 the fact that he rode a grey horse and carried a round horn 

 on a shoulder belt. They killed near Cave Gate, and the 

 few remaining men, including Sir John Tyrrell, adjourned 

 to Puckeridge with the hounds for the night. Mr. Conyers 

 alleged that he came a long way to Hadham Park, thence 

 to Hormead, and changed. Though it was felt that he was 

 hardly within his sporting rights in getting to Hadham, no 

 one complained, as it was all set down to his love of 

 an adventure. If, as we have seen, the Squire had his 

 faults, he also had his good points, one of them, and that 

 not the least important, being his anxious care for the 

 farmers. On one occasion when his hounds met, he pre- 

 faced the proceedings of the day by presenting a silk 

 dress to the wife of each farmer in the district, saying 

 that the ladies must be propitiated before hunting could 

 flourish. 



In spite of Mr. Conyers's rough tongue, the sport 

 which he showed was sometimes shared by a stray 



