44 



HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 



In a conservatory leading out of the dining 

 room at Gaddesby Hall, there was a life-sized 

 statue of Colonel Cheney with his horse. (He 

 had three horses killed under him at Waterloo). 

 The effect was very good when the conservatory 

 was Hghted up. It was the custom for all the 

 men to dine in pink, and the whole thing was 

 like an artistic scene out of a play. If the 

 neighbours who came to dine only lived two or 

 three miles away, like Mr. Jorrocks, " where 

 they dined there they slept," bringing with them 

 a whole retinue of men-servants and maids; 

 the house must have been very elastic ; it 

 seemed to make no difference. In this way one 

 met many very pleasant people. I had a 

 great disappointment, and one I have never 

 ceased to regret: Whyte-Melville was expected, 

 and only at the last moment he sent a wire to 

 say his aunt, or sister, or some relation, was 

 dead. 



One night I was sitting next to Sir 

 Frederic Fowke ; it suddenly dawned on him 

 that I came from the wilds of Essex. He said: 

 " I suppose you don't know a place called 

 Hockley? There is a farm there named 

 Smith's." I repHed that I did know it very 

 well. Mr. Jackson, who kept the beagles 

 (commonly known as the Master of the Buck 

 hounds) resided there. Sir Frederic said: "I 

 am a trustee for that place ; the property was 

 left as a charity, and provides red cloaks and 

 loaves for the deserving poor of Barsbury, in 

 Leicestershire." Smith's Farm has lately been 

 sold and cut up and laid out for building. 



