74 



The distance from the woods was not so very great, 

 and we may very likely have changed in them ; but the 

 hounds never ceased running after leaving Fernhill. 

 My dear old father did not leave Oxford very early, and 

 just came up as we were getting away. How he did 

 enjoy it. He would sometimes come out for half a day 

 in the afternoon, having his horse to meet him at the 

 door of the schools (the old schools under the Bodleian 

 library). Old Baronet was then eighteen, and went 

 well. Lord Macclesfield said that day, " If I had known 

 he could go like that, you never should have had him." 

 My father had him for three years, but he fell and broke 

 two of his ribs, larking in Wytham Park, over some of 

 Lord Norrey s' made-up fences, and then he came to me for 

 three years more, and taught my wife to ride, before he 

 went to his old home at the kennels. 



The distance from Fernhill to Chinkwell Wood, as 

 we ran, is about 15^ miles by the ordnance map, but 

 from the corner of Shabbington Wood to Chinkwell, 

 about nine miles, via Chearsley and Chilton, and this 

 was the best of the run. It does not look much upon 

 paper, but it was over a beautiful line of country, and 

 the hounds, after the first mile, ran very fast. The only 

 bit of plough I remember was between Chearsley and 

 Chilton, coming back. In going to Chearsley we ran 

 to the north of Chilton village, and coming back to the 

 south. It is so long ago I can hardly remember who 

 was out, but I remember Jack Thompson was at the 

 corner of Chearsley cover when I got there ; and I 

 remember one of the Parkers — Algy, I think — giving the 

 field a lead over a rail under Waterperry in the first 

 part of the run. Prank Davenport was always there or 

 thereabouts, going slow at his fences, till he retired to 

 Mexico. Prank Gale, Fred Turrill, and the four 



