250 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



In 1888, lie was High Sherift' for Derbyshire, being also 

 a Deputy Lieutenant, and Chairman of the Bench at 

 Ashbourne. Before this, in 1880, he planted the four-acre 

 Gorse at Cubley. 



But it was not only as a houndsman and a horseman 

 that he excelled, for he was a thorough all-round sports- 

 man. It is a moot point whether he was happier when 

 mounted on Thoresby or the Druid, in a good thing across 

 country, or when engaged in a sharp bout with some 

 lordly salmon on the Namsen river. He could stalk a 

 stag, too, with any man in the Forest of Flowerdale by 

 Gairloch, which he rented, ever since 1874, of Sir Kenneth 

 Mackenzie. The average kill for the last twelve years is 

 eighteen stags per annum, and, oddly enough, the same 

 numeral expresses the weight of the heaviest beast. 



He served in the Leicestershire and South Notts 

 Yeomanry, on which account probably he was frequently 

 spoken of as Colonel. He also belonged to the Koyal 

 Yacht Squadron, his vessel being the Adelaide, a yawl 

 of eighty tons. Of late years he usually migrated in the 

 middle of January to his villa at Hyeres, which he bought 

 in 1884, but it was not till 1893 that he gave up hunting 

 altoo'ether. From about that time till his death, on New 

 Year's Eve, 1898, the state of his health kept him at 

 home, and his familiar figure was seen abroad no more. 



He was a typical English country gentleman ; up- 

 right, free-handed, modest, unaffected, interesting himself 

 in everything which pertained to his sphere of life, a good 

 landlord, and excelling in all the pursuits which seem to 

 be the natural heritage of an English gentleman. 



The following extract from a letter from Lord Berkeley 

 Paget, as a tribute to the memory of his old friend, seems 

 to be a fitting corollary to the above account : — 



" Mr. William Clowes was one of the best men to 

 hounds, and one of the finest horsemen I have ever seen. 

 He combined quickness and quietness in a marked degree. 

 He was a first-rate sportsman in every way, and anything 

 he undertook he did well. I remember rather an amusing 



