SOME HUMOURS OF THE CHASE 289 



No doubt I must have thought it encouraging to the 

 pack to wave my right arm with energy as I took 

 them along. All in vain. They never touched the 

 line again. I looked round once more : What did 

 I see ? Fifty yards behind stood Lord Henry himself, 

 the Messrs. Chaplin, Chandos Leigh, and Charley 

 Hawtin. Would that the earth could have swallowed 

 me up at that moment ! Slowly, step by step, the 

 cavalcade approached ! I heard a smothered ' Hush ! ' 

 and yet another pause. At last Lord Henry, in slow, 

 measured tones, almost hissed out, word by word, ' Sii' 

 Reginald, lohen you have quite done feeding your 

 chickens, perhaps you will alloic my huntsman to cast 

 my hounds.''' One of Colonel Anstruther Thomson's 

 whippers-in when he first hunted the Fife, Charles Pike 

 by name, must have been a bit of a wag. Pike after- 

 wards became huntsman of the Quorn, when the 

 hapless Marquess of Hastings was Master, and Colonel 

 Thomson tells us how " Colonel Lowther meeting Pike 

 in Leicester one day said, ' Well, Pike, what are you 

 doing ? ' He answered, ' I've got the sack. Marquis 

 has taken to drink. Hermit has won the Derby, and 

 we're all going to hell together.'" 



There was a first whip and kennel huntsman in a 

 neighbouring country to that from which I write 

 whose sayings used to amuse us not a little some few 

 years ago. He was a cheery fellow ; keen and hard- 

 working too and very ready with his tongue. He was 

 possessed of a strident voice which he got ready for 

 action by clearing his throat with a sound that might 

 have been audible a mile away, and the throat, when 

 once cleared, seemed incapable of emitting any sound 



Hounds, Gentlemen, Please. 20 



