268 The ex-Queen of Naples. 



over a country. Mr. Frederick Allen, the riding 

 master, had given her many lessons In the art, 

 and great credit was due to him for teaching the 

 Queen so successfully. Mr. Allen also provided 

 the hunters ; these were two chesnut horses called 

 respectively Pilot and Pickles, which could not be 

 surpassed In any way for the purpose of carrying 

 the Oueen. 



Quite unexpectedly I was asked by the Queen 

 herself to act as her Majesty's pilot. From 

 Pike's Gorse a fox went away, which happened 

 to be the first her Majesty had seen going away 

 from covert. To my great amusement she 

 exclaimed, with great excitement : '' I do see the 

 fox ! I do see the fox ! ! " I then requested her 

 Majesty^ s attention and rode over a few small 

 clipped fences. I soon found, however, that my 

 part was to get out of the way, and on the many 

 occasions when I had the honour of piloting the 

 Royal Lady she never seemed to find the fences 

 too large. 



We had a good day's sport and killed a fox. 

 When the hounds caught the fox the Queen said : 

 " Let us go away, I do not care for this part 

 of It." Her behest was, of course, obeyed. 



As time went on it became apparent that the 

 ex-Queen was passionately fond of hunting, and 



