Il6 SIR WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK's REMINISCENCES. 



Some Reminiscences of 

 5ir Willoughby Maycock, K.C.M.G., 



which from his long residence in his younger days at 

 Gumley and Foxton, the intimate acquaintance both of 

 himself and his parents with Mr. Tailby, and his personal 

 recollection of the Billesdon Hunt can hardly fail to 

 interest readers. 



80 St. George's Square, 

 London. 



November i^tJi, 191 3. 

 Dear Mr. Costobadie, 



I feel some diffidence in responding to your kind 

 suggestion that I should send you some recollections of 

 the many happy days I have spent in my youth with 

 the Billesdon Hunt. I always think of the old adage 

 that " Self is a subject on which all can be eloquent but 

 few entertaining." I have reached a time of life when 

 ' the memory of the past ' has far more attractions than 

 the prospects of the future, but in dealing with it the 

 difficulty is to avoid becoming prosy. I trust at any rate 

 that some of my reminiscences may not lay me open to 

 that charge, so here goes for what they are worth. 



I was born in 1849, and my parents, after a brief 

 residence at Husbands Bosworth, took Gumley Hall from 

 Sir William Hartopp in September 1852, and continued 

 to reside there till September 1861, when they moved to 

 Foxton Lodge, about a mile off, and remained there 

 till September 1875, when they emigrated to Leamington, 

 where they spent the remainder of their days. My father, 

 Dottin Maycock, had been first in the i6th Lancers and 

 afterwards in the 6th Liniskilling Dragoons. He was 

 generally admitted to be one of the handsomest men in 

 the British Army in his day. He could never afford 



