POACHERS FROM SMEETON. 



117 



to keep a large stud of hunters, and the up-keep of so 

 large a house as Gumley taxed his resources to the 

 utmost. Nor was he ever a thrusting rider. Like Mr. 

 Jorrocks, he thought that little places were apt to result 

 in " werry nasty falls " and many were the gaps that he 

 preferred * leading over ' to jumping. Yet he was by no 

 means deficient in courage. I well remember as a little 

 boy being out riding with him when we found a gang of 

 poachers from Smeeton calmly dragging the Canal in one 

 of our fields at the foot of Gumley Village. There were 

 about hall-a-dozen of them, as desperate a set of 

 scoundrels as I ever set eyes on. Father was off his 

 horse like a shot, and chucking the reins to me, dashed 

 into the middle of them, dragged their trawl net out of 

 the water, and cut it into shreds. Meanwhile they 

 threatened to do for him and had their knives out. I 

 was terrified, I'm bound to state, fully expecting to see 

 him killed and implored him to come away. Fortunately 

 it all ended in ' cuss words,' and he rated me soundly 

 afterwards for being so frightened. He was very popular 

 with the hunting men, and both at Gumley and Foxton 

 dispensed hospitality pretty lavishly, and enjoyed a good 

 deal from his neighbours in return. We all loved dear old 

 Gumley with its wood, its primroses, and blue bells, its 

 pond and its pike, and we all wept copiously when the day 

 came to leave it, with the dogs and cats — the latter with 

 their feet well buttered — for a humbler and less costly 

 abode at Foxton Lodge, which has since become the 

 Vicarage. But I must 'hark back.'! 



"G>" 



Gumley was usually in those days the first meet of 

 the Season with Mr. Tailby's hounds, and has been so 

 ever since. My riding recollections date from i860, but 

 I see from my diary that the opening day that year, on 

 November 5th, was the XIL Milestone on the Welford 

 Road, and it was not till the following Monday the 12th, 

 that the meet was at Gumley. The recollections of that 

 day are still fresh in my memory, and are associated 



