/IDasters ot the 1Ro\?al J5ucftboun^5 211 



ing of one of his mishaps, he says : ' I got a regular duck- 

 ing riding over a wooden bridge at Hamper Hill. 

 My horse Rosslyn slipt on one side and came upon his 

 back on the top of me, and in the struggle my spur got 

 caught in the stirrup and he dragged me down the 

 brook for fifty yards, when luckily my spur leather broke 

 and let me at large. Although I felt very much shaken 

 I went on and did my duty and rode home twenty-five 

 miles in wet clothes.' Unfortunately, whilst Frank was 

 still suffering from the effects of that fall, and was ren- 

 dered unpresentable by a black eye and bruised face, 

 the Queen paid a surprise visit to the kennels. ' Her 

 Majesty,' he writes, ' went all over the kennels, taking 

 great interest in the hounds and in every detail.' 



Here is another interesting item from Goodall's Diary : 

 ' November 27th, 1877. The Prince Imperial was out 

 to-day. He rode my favourite mare Countess, and I led 

 the hounds and left them at Lord Salisbury's at Hatfield 

 for the night. I came home by train, wet through to the 

 skin.' Who that saw the young Prince riding that day 

 so fearlessly and well, for he was a good horseman with 

 a better seat than even his father, who was seen at his 

 best on horseback, could have dreamed that within two 

 years he was to die an ignominious death at the hands of 

 savages in a quarrel with which he had not the remotest 

 personal interest or concern ! 



Frank Goodall retired from the post of Queen's hunts- 

 man in 1888, and was succeeded by John Harvey, who 

 in 1894 surrendered the horn to John Comins, the 

 present holder. 



But to return to the Masters of the Buckhounds. 

 Among the notable ones of the last hundred years, 

 were Lord Sandwich, who used to take a dice-box out 



