2U THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1862 



" The lot, whilst I spoke, were shuffling the plans and 

 papers on the table, and smiling with a sneer at me, when 

 a gentleman-farmer-looking man, with a red face, glanced 

 at me, and asked, ' Mr. Harrison ? — my friend, Mr. 

 Harrison ? A first-class man. I hunt with him. If he 

 would give a recommendation, gentlemen,' he said to his 

 fellow committee-men, ' you may rest secure, this young 

 man is respectable.' 



'* ' No doubt, no doubt,' was the general answer. ' But 

 what can we do ? The young man has no estimates, has 

 not seen the plans, and to-day is the day to decide.' 



" The farmer jumped up, and declared that he was not 

 at all satisfied with any of the estimates. ' Give the 

 young man a chance. If he has friends such as my friends 

 Leigh ton and Harrison ' — he dropped the title, I noticed — 

 ' he will be respectable.' 



" I broke in, for I saw I had a friend on the com- 

 mittee, ' Let me have the plans, say twenty-four hours, or 

 to-morrow at this time, gentlemen, and I will bring an 

 estimate.' 



" ' Do it for Mr. Harrison's friend ! ' cried the farmer. 



" ' Yes, I think we might grant that,' said the vicar." 



Of course he got the contract in the end, and that 

 was '* the tide in his affairs," which he fairly took at the 

 flood, thanks to the open sesame of Mr. Harrison's name. 



A cottage on the top of Cackle Hill at Snelston was 

 also the scene of Dinah Morris's preaching, the original of 

 Dinah being also an Evans, who used to stay at Ellastone 

 with her uncle, George Eliot's father. 



The son of the Squire Harrison, also mentioned, was a 

 constant follower of the Hoar Cross hounds in his younger 

 days, and used to go well, especially on a famous thorough- 

 bred chestnut horse, by Riddlesworth. This horse was 

 entered for the Derby, but did not run, and was eventually 

 "schooled " as a hunter by the celebrated Dick Christian, 

 doing credit to his tutor in Mr. Harrison's hands in many 

 a good run afterwards. Mr. Okeover, who is one of the 

 very few who remember the horse, speaks of him as having 



