DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 23 



very large, as a rule — in fact, in the Guards' Point-to-point, 

 the Sutton brook, one of the widest, was the last obstacle 

 in the race, and not a horse failed to jump it — but, in the 

 Radburn country especially, they are always getting in 

 the way. One peculiarity is that your horse has almost 

 always to jump either up or down, through the hedges 

 being mostly set on low banks or cops, and on account of 

 the undulating surface of the land. The ditches, too, 

 though not over wide, are ill-defined, so that, altogether, 

 he fares best who rides slowly at his fences. We always 

 flattered ourselves that the Meltonians, who used to come 

 by special train years ago, tumbled about more than we 

 did through neglect of this precaution. In these halcyon 

 days such men as Mr. Chaplin, Sir Frederick Johnstone, 

 Captain Tempest, and others, were wont to do battle for 

 pride of place with Lords Stanhope, Alexander, and 

 Berkeley Paget, the redoubtable FitzHerbert family, Mr. 

 Clowes, the Messrs. Buller and Boden, and many more, 

 and it is related, that, at the end of a capital burst from 

 Radburn, when hounds had been ridden clean off the line, 

 Mr. Meynell Ingram murmured that " all went well till 

 white-headed Bob " — a familiar sobriquet for that fine 

 horseman, Captain Tempest — " sat down to race the 

 leading hound." 



When it has been mentioned that the country is 

 seamed with innumerable lanes into which it is often 

 diflicult to jump, and out of which it is not seldom 

 impossible to do so ; when attention has been drawn to 

 the fact, unluckily too true, that there are hardly any 

 landowners or farmers who come out with the hounds, 

 in this year of grace 1901, nothing is left to be urged 

 against one of the most charming districts possible. A 

 captious critic, indeed, might complain that there are too 

 many foxes. Yet, what says Beckford, when his corre- 

 spondent cavilled at this same thing? "Believe me, it 

 is a good fault. I should as soon have expected to have 

 heard your old acquaintance. Jack R., complain of having 

 too much money." But foxes could never have been quite 



