346 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



on his favourite horse " The Miller," had gone well ; the former 

 was unlucky with his hired horse, which proved a screw and a 

 roarer, so he exchanged for a powerful chestnut belonging to 

 Watson, who keeps the "George" at Melton. I left off near 

 Skeffington, where one of the young Suttons lives in a neat 

 house built for him by his father, in a sweet situation and in the 

 midst of a beautiful country ; thence I found my way to Tilton, 

 where I put " Carlow " into a stable and gave him some chilled 

 water, and he brought me home in a style as if he had not been 

 a mile. On my way through a succession of gates, and quite 

 unusual with him, he quickened his pace on coming up to them 

 as if he wished to jump them. I suppose the upright fencing 

 reminds him of old times, before he went into Essex, and suits 

 his taste. This was one of his pulling days, but he was very 

 much admired and enquired after. Col. Wyndham, who lives 

 at Melton, recollects him when running in Ireland, and from 

 his and others' statements he must be now nearly twenty years 

 old. What an astonishing horse he is ! and what must he have 

 been at six years old, and how could Lord Howth ever have 

 parted with him ^ 



A hound was ridden over to-day by a " stranger in a cap," 

 and as I answered this description, and had. ridden in a fore- 

 most place, I fancied, as did Pym, both from Sir Richard's 

 observation and also from having received a friendly hint from 

 Jack Morgan as to Sir Richard's love and care for his hounds, 

 that Sir Richard thought that I had been the perpetrator of 

 the mischief I therefore accosted him at Tilton Wood, asking 

 him whether he thought so, adding that I had not touched a 

 hound, at least that I was as conscious of having eaten one as 

 of having ridden over one to-day, and that had I inadvertently 

 done so I wouki have tendered the fullest apology ; when he 

 replied in a very gentlemanlike style that he did not attribute it 

 to me, that he did not know who it was, but that the hound was 

 a stallion, a particular favourite, that he believed he was only 

 hurt, not killed, but that whether or not he must say with 

 Osbaldeston, " I have plenty more at home." 



W^ednesday, November 1 1. None of the three packs hunt- 

 ing to-day, I betook myself, with "Carlow," by railway to Rugby, 

 to meet the Pytchley at Crick, one of their best fixtures and in 

 some of their best country. There had been a sharp white 

 frost in the nioht, and the mornino- was brio-ht and beautiful, 

 but not looking much like hunting, I had to be stirring early 

 to go by the 6.40 train from Melton, and therefore took merely 

 a cup of coffee, put some dry toast in my pocket and started by 



