188 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1857 



their confluence, full to the brim and impregnated with the red clay of Radburne, 

 looking for all the world like a huge dose of rhubarb and magnesia. Nothing 

 was to be done but stick in the spurs and harden your hearts. Plop ! plop ! plop ! 

 went the three first into the middle in succession, others more fortunate got their 

 forelegs on to the opposite bank, but few made a clean jump of it. The brook 

 was full of sportsmen, and I saw a learned divine (who, by the way, is an 

 excellent preserver of foxes) up to his neck in the turbid stream, administering 

 the rite of adult baptism to two sturdy yeomen. Next to death, a brook is the 

 greatest human leveller ; the heir to a dukedom and a fishmonger fraternizing 

 together chin deep in the sluggish stream, men and horses, horses and men, all 

 higglety-pigglety, reminding me of the pictures one sees of Pharaoh and his host 

 in the Red Sea, barring the chariots ; and, as we ascended the hill by the old 

 Sutton covert, you might see poor, drippling wretches — 



" Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow," 



endeavouring by force and stratagem again to possess themselves of their horses. 

 But the brook, which so impeded men and horses, oSered but little obstruction 

 to the fox and his relentless followers. By Sutton covert and the Ash like 

 pigeons they flew, till a fatal and inexplicable check near Hilton Cottage brought 

 them to a stand, after a run of nearly forty minutes. To say who went best 

 would be only to hurt the feelings of those who did not go best, but two Eton boys 

 shall have their names recorded, Masters Townsend and George Moore. They 

 went gallantly and steadily. Of the latter the huntsman said, " A good sort that, 

 sir ; wants no litter mark to show how he is bred." Floreat Etona, and may she 

 send forth as many true-bred foxhunters as she has sent forth gallant soldiers 

 and sailors to fight her country's battles. So ends my tale as did the very 

 pleasant day with Mr. Meynell Ingram's hounds. 



Yours, etc., 



Carriox Crow. 



One of the Eton boys, at any rate, sustained his early 

 promise, for he was in the great Radburne run of 1868, 

 and Miss Georgiana Meynell and he are now the sole 

 survivors of that little band. The learned divine was 

 probably the Rev. German Buckston, while the heir to the 

 Dukedom may have been the Marquis of Hartington, who 

 used to hunt with these hounds. 



1858. 



The beginning of this season was marked by a sad 

 event, which was the death of young Tom Leedham, on 

 November 12th, at the early age of 19. He, too, was laid 

 with his grandfather and father in Yoxall churchyard. 



Charles came as second whipper-in from Lord South- 

 ampton, with whom he had been holding a similar position. 

 There had been some little fuss about riding a certain 



