76 FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



a day to come, or at all events until its fame shall 

 have been eclipsed by a longer and more glorious 

 one. It is but common justice to say that Sir R. 

 Graham was with his hounds everywhere, and 

 that he handled them in a most judicious and 

 masterly manner. I hope that, notwithstanding 

 an avoidance of anything like undue laudation 

 or triumphant cracking of the descriptive whip, 

 I have at least rescued this run of the New 

 Forest Fox Hounds from total oblivion, and 

 raised it out of the ruck of provinical records.'' — 



" SiRIUS." 



I can remember a famous day on Thursday, 

 24th January 1878. Lord Percy was staying 

 with me to have a look at the north of the country, 

 which he had never seen, and I mounted him on 

 a bay mare called Gelatine. We met at the 

 Royal Oak, Fritham, with sixteen couple of dog- 

 hounds; went first to Islands Thorns, a large 

 enclosure which was full of deer that morning. 

 They gave us some trouble, but I got the hounds 

 together and trotted off a couple of miles to 

 some gorse outside Sloden. An old fox was off 

 like a shot, and we raced him at a rattling pace 

 over the open heath for thirty-three minutes, and 

 caught him between Goreley and Fordingbridge. 

 It was a terrific pace, and when Mr. Bradburne 

 got up to us he sang out to me, '' Wherever you 

 go, all your life you will never see such a gallop 



