88 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



baronet, mad as ever." He might possibly have made 

 the same remark if he had seen the subject of it set the 

 whole field at the Melbourne brook in flood, or charge the 

 Mease, landing dry himself, " the horse not being a good 

 water jumper," as he observed dryly, though some people 

 would have thought it a fair performance nearly to suc- 

 ceed in clearing a river. He always thought an extra- 

 ordinary good run of two hours and forty minutes from 

 Loxley at a great pace over the cream of that good 

 country was the best thing he ever saw with the Meynell. 

 Miss Meynell went very well, as she always did. It may 

 have been in this gallop that Tom Leedham, coming up 

 from behind, called out, "You mun lick and lay on, 

 missy ! " The fox had the best of it, for it was thought 

 that hounds never changed, yet they had to be stopped 

 in the end. 



Sir William made his last appearance in the hunting- 

 field in his seventy-seventh year, riding Tory, a famous 

 horse bred by Colonel FitzHerbert, and a great favourite 

 with his daughter. Hounds ran very fast for thirty-seven 

 minutes from Longford Car, round by the Spath, and 

 killed near Brailsford. " Squire " Chandos-Pole, who 

 was then master, presented the brush to his old friend, 

 who had been in his usual place all through. So, with 

 him, the ardent flame of the chase was not allowed to 

 flicker out, as it is in some cases, but burned brilliantly to 

 the finish. So long as hunting continues in Derbyshire 

 his name will be connected with it, while its very mention 

 still conjures up for many of us the familiar figure with 

 the white hair beneath the hunting-cap, the patriarchal 

 beard flowing over the breast of the well-worn " pink," 

 and the cavalry boots with a peak coming up over the 

 knee, such as you see depicted in Herring's spirited 

 pictures. 



Charles used to tell an amusing story of how a fox 

 was killed just in front of a gentleman's house, and of 

 how the owner was very much put out at the horses 

 trampling his gravel. The next time Sir William saw 



