312 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



How and where he was tempted to leave it he would point 

 out in some walk, though in these rambles he never got quite 

 so far as the spot where, on the occasion of the Prince of Wales 

 honouring a meet of the Blankney or Belvoir Hounds with his 

 presence, he had the honour of giving his Royal Highness 

 a lead over a fence to which his horse had demurred, as the 

 dear old boy subsequently remarked " I ought to have been 

 made a Bishop on the spot." 



Allowed to be one of the best judges of a horse in Lincoln- 

 shire, and a great lover of the noble animal, many a good one 

 found its way from Horncastle Fair or the North of England 

 into his stable. One in particular which was bought by the late 

 Robert Chapman of Cheltenham in October, 1867, and sold 

 the followino- month to the Duke of Beaufort, was acknow- 

 ledged by His Grace to be one of the best hunters he ever 

 rode.* 



Small wonder, then, that I clung with some affection to my 

 pseudonym McAdam, which revived such pleasant memories 

 of scenes long past. 



See Appendix " Letter from Duke of Beaufort." 



