LORD BERKELEY PAGET. 183 



ride ait an age when most boys are seen poking about witb 

 the family coachman or their father's second horseman : — 

 He first came into the Meynell country as a boy, 

 when his father, Lord Anglesey, succeeded to the Beau- 

 desert estates in 1854. Beaudesert and Cannock Chace 

 were then in the Meynell country, and they always used 

 to meet there and hunt it in the spring. It still belongs 

 to the Meynell, but some years ago (in 1868) they lent it 

 to the South Staftbrd, who hunt it at the present time. 

 Lord Berkeley soon took to hunting, as the following 

 cutting from a local paper of that period (1858) will 

 show : — 



MR. MEYNELL INGRAM'S HOUNDS. 



We have much pleasure in recording a brilliant run of fifty-five minutes with 

 Mr. Meynell Ingi-am's hounds on the 5th inst., when the accomplished and 

 juvenile (sports man we must say), Lord Berkeley Paget, a boy of only fourteen 

 years of age, led a field of about two hundred horsemen, and amongst them some 

 of the hardest riders in the country. The hounds were in the neighbourhood of 

 Derby, near to Lord Scarsdale's. Off they went across a fine grass country, 

 equal to any in Northamptonshire, and away went the little lord, well-mounted, 

 and looking the leau ideal of a British Nimrod — spurs, boots, and breeches. All 

 started together, his lordship leading, and being soon twenty minutes ahead of 

 them, crossing two big brooks, lots of bullfinches, ox fences, posts and rails 

 innumerable, including formidable jumps, riding hard and well, and in at the 

 death after a ride of fifty-five minutes. Lord Alexander, his brother, being a good 

 fourth. During the run his juvenile lordship was literally ridden down by a stout, 

 heavy yeoman ; both horses fell down together. Lord Berkeley was the first up, 

 and rather remonstrated with the awkward countryman. No matter, he suc- 

 ceeded in adding to his reputation as the best juvenile shot in the country, by 

 showing those of riper age that he is also good across countrj', and, like his father, 

 a true lover of English sport. 



He hunted from home up till 1869, when his father 

 died. That year he and Lord Waterpark went to 

 America and shot on the plains and in the Rocky 

 Mountains. On his return, he and his brother. Lord 

 Alexander, took Field House, Marchington, and con- 

 tinued to hunt from there. During these years he had 

 some remarkably good horses, worth anything you please, 

 though the actual cost of the three best, First Flight, 

 Quicksilver, and Apethorpe, was but two hundred and 

 seventy pounds for the lot ; in fact, the last-named was 

 purchased for thirty-five pounds from Lord Westmorland, 



