the hounds, for we got away very slowly, the fox having 

 been gone so long, and well we did ; for, after crossing 

 the Oakley and Worminghall road, the fences were very 

 big, one or two being boreable and not jiimpable; but 

 alter leaving Oakley on the left, the scent improved in 

 the big grass meadows under Brill, and we had to gallop 

 to keep with hounds. What beautiful meadows those 

 are ! We crossed the Chilton and Dorton road, close to 

 Dorton, and down to the Chearsley brook, where there 

 Y^as a good deal of grief. I and three others were riding 

 rather wide on the right, and we had it at a good place. 

 George Castle first, Lady Adelaide Parker second, a 

 man on a cob third, and I fourth. I could see it was 

 something big by the way George Castle and Lady 

 Adelaide went at it. My dear old father got in higher 

 up on Baronet, an old horse he had bought of Lord 

 Macclesfield, and which Lady Adelaide rode for six sea- 

 sons ; and he then had a post rail, which he rode at three 

 times before he got over. Colonel Ruck Keene told me 

 afterwards that he halloed to my father, " I hope I shall 

 ride like that when I am your age." And so to 

 Chearsley Gorse, where we did not check above two or 

 three minutes ; back over almost the same line to the 

 brook — but this time nearer the bridge to Chearsley 

 village — which I believe nearly all went over, and then 

 up the hill to Chilton village very fast, the hounds 

 almost racing away from us. 1 remember going up one 

 fence, looking for a weak place, but it kept getting 

 bigger, and at last I turned at it in despair, my father 

 following. He said afterwards it was a very big place. 

 We checked at Chilton village for a minute or two, and 

 then ran on to Chinkwell Wood, under Brill Hill, where 

 they lost him, going to ground, I think. 



