172 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



peripatetic stud-groom to the whole neighbourhood. The 

 first thing nearly every one did on bringing a horse in 

 lame was to send for the " doctor." This reminds the 

 author of a rather amusing experience. Bonner came to 

 his house at Hanbury one morning with the hounds. A 

 lady staying in the house happened to be ill. " Would 

 you mind, as you go by, asking the doctor to come up as 

 soon as he can ? You will pass his house on your way 

 back to the kennels," he said to Bonner, as the latter took 

 his leave. No doctor came that day, but early the next 

 morning Mi\ Statliam came driving into the yard, and 

 inquired anxiously what was the matter, saying that he 

 had received a summons to come up at once, and was 

 afraid the matter was urgent ! 



The kennels in Charles's time claimed a good deal of 

 his time, and at least once a week the huntsman used to 

 go and spend two or three hours with him of an evening. 

 On one subject they always differed, and that was about 

 the famous hound Colonel. The old doctor never could 

 stand the dog's head. That prevented him seeing any 

 merit in him at all. One day, in administering chloroform 

 to a hound called Ladas, he sent him to sleep so effectually 

 that he never woke again, which grieved him sorely. 



His store of anecdote and memories of old days was 

 simply inexhaustible. If only he and Charles could be 

 set talking at this moment, how much more interesting 

 would this chapter be. That being impossible, nothing- 

 remains but to jot down a few notes taken about three 

 years ago. The old man sat in his cart just by what used 

 to be the Tollgate between Densy and Draycott, and 

 talked away, as he so loved to do, about old days, men, 

 and horses. As it so happened, the conversation, or as 

 much of it as could be remembered, was committed to 

 paper immediately, and this is the gist of it. He began 

 with the run of 1868. 



" I remember both the horses Tom rode that day. 

 His first horse was a big thoroughbred one, vicious in 

 the stable. A horse with a big belly, no flesh, no 



