statistics of the Present Day 



who stated that a lump came in the throats of 

 those present when the venerable sportsman in 

 his reply declared : '* I cannot ride to hounds 

 now, yet I do assure you their music is very, 

 very dear to me." At Biggleswade Mr. George 

 Race still keeps a pack of harriers, as he has 

 done since 1840, and in 1907 started his sixty- 

 seventh season as an M.F.H. ; in fact, the proud 

 distinction is his of having held one office for 

 a longer period than any other master, whether 

 of foxhounds, staghounds, or harriers, for he has 

 passed the record of the late Mr. John Crozier, 

 who for no fewer than sixty-four years was Master 

 of the Blencathra foxhounds in one of the wildest 

 and roughest regions of Cumberland. 



No longer an M.F.H., Mr. Robert Watson, of 

 Ballydarton, can yet carry his thoughts back over 

 nearly sixty years of active managements of the 

 Carlow and Island hounds, which were hunted 

 by his father before him ; and if asked to what 

 he attributed his great vitality, even at the pre- 

 sent day, like Colonel Anstruther-Thomson (who 

 lived to publish '' Eighty Years' Reminiscences"), 

 he would, in all probability, answer with the 

 familiar line, ^' I owe it to horse and to hound." 

 Only a few seasons ago Mr. Watson was paying 

 a visit to the Meath country (over which his son 

 has ruled so successfully), and he astonished every 

 one by getting away with the hounds and re- 



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