STAG-HUxNTING. 187 



gallant stag over a wild deep country by Marsh Gibbon, 

 tiring the horses sadly, till even that determined sports- 

 man, the late Hon. Robert Grinston, gave up and re- 

 tired, leaving about a dozen still following. On nearing 

 Launton, about two miles from Bicester, the pack had 

 distanced me, but I kept on their track, and, when 

 Cheslyn Hall came up, we heard some hounds not very 

 far off. We galloped on ; a labourer told us they 

 hadn't been gone above five minutes, and showed us the 

 line they took. After riding nearly a mile we arrived 

 near enough to discover that it was Mr. Drake's hounds 

 we were pursuing, and they were full-cry after a rattling 

 good fox, while the " Staggers," with only five men with 

 them, had gone towards Bucknell. On we pushed our 

 tired steeds, and were soon rewarded by meeting the 

 stag, with three and a half couple of tired hounds follow- 

 ing him. The faint music of the hounds infused new 

 life into our horses, and we sped on to the town of 

 Bicester: in a few minutes up came Tom Ball, the 

 huntsman, and two light weights, who always went 

 well — Messrs. T. W. Morris and B. Hawes, then M.P. 

 for Lambeth — and then came one or two stragglers 

 with the rest of the pack. The deer took over a low 

 wall, and went through the gardens at the back of the 

 houses in the main street of the town : I well remember, 

 as I rode down the street, passing that prince of whips, 

 old Sir Henry Peyton, with his four greys and bright 

 yellow coach, and Lady Peyton by his side. The stag 

 took the open again after going through Bicester, and 

 was safely secured about a mile further on, at Langford 

 P'arm, the birthplace of Sir Joseph Paxton of Crystal 



