loo ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



notwithstanding all Mr. Erie's arguments and entreaties. 

 Some time afterwards the Baron asked him why he was 

 so anxious to get him into the brook ? The Rector told 

 him, if he had once got him in he would have kept him 

 there "till he had baptized him and made him a 

 Christian." The hounds met annually at Hard wick, 

 whicli meant the Rectory, where a famous breakfast was 

 laid out, to wh"ch all were bidden to attend. There was 

 alwa\-s a fine ham in the centre of the table, which he 

 persistently would press Baron Meyer to partake of, as 

 he could assure him it was a mnttoji ham. On one 

 occasion Sir Robert Peel was at the meet there with 

 Lady Peel and the Baroness, and many ladies from 

 Mentmore. Soon after the start, Sir Robert had a fall. 

 Mr. Erie assisted him to mount ; in fact, as he told me 

 the next day, he tried to liloinit Pelion Ossa. Lady 

 Peel lost a fur cloak at the same time, which was after- 

 wards found, whereupon the Rector wrote a poem chiefly 

 composed of Latin and Greek quotations, but saying 

 that it had been at last found in Houndsditch, where 

 doubtless it had been taken by some of the party. 

 Baron Meyer was justly offended at this, and although 

 he put up with many of Mr. Erie's eccentricities, he 

 thought this was going too far, and for some long time 

 afterwards he was excluded from the Mentmore parties, 

 where he had up to that time always been a most 

 welcome guest. 



Poor dear old Rector ! how much you were beloved, 

 how truly charitable you were ! I well remember once 

 your accompanying your brother, the Lord Chief Justice, 

 on a visit to my farm on horseback to see the mowing- 



