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1869] THE MISSES MEYNELL INGRAM. 285 



must be remembered that they rode without the assistance 

 of the third pommel, which is universal now, and deserve 

 the very greatest credit on that account. But there is no 

 need for the present writer to sing their praises. That 

 has been done by almost every penman whose writings 

 have been quoted in this volume, and their horsemanship 

 is proverbial. So long as there is a pack of hounds in the 

 country — and may the day never come when there is 

 not ! — their doings will be a household story. 



Hounds went out again on March 15th, 1869, and 

 the date was memorable as being the day on which 

 Charles Leedham first carried the horn. His uncle Tom 

 had a cold, and said he should not go. " Let me take the 

 horn," Charles said — a proposition to which his uncle 

 agreed, with the encouraging remark, " Much good may it 

 do you ! " 



The nephew found his fox in Eaton Wood, and hounds 

 ran well by Marston Park, and Roston, crossing the Dove 

 close to Norbury Bridge, through the Wootton Woods, 

 and marked their fox to ground under the drive at Alton 

 Towers. He was got out and killed. Charles used to 

 have some story about Mr. Keates getting bitten. As 

 hounds ran down by the Dove one of them snapped at 

 a lamb, catching him across the loins. When the hunts- 

 man got home he told his uncle what a good day they 

 had had, and how he had killed his fox, and so on, but he 

 either did not know, or, at any rate, did not say, anything 

 about the lamb. The latter unfortunately died, and in 

 due course the claim came in to Tom, who, rejoicing at 

 having something to set against his nephew's success, 

 growled out, "Well, Mr. Hontsman, ye tell us all the 

 good things, but ye say nowt about the bad." 



On March 21st there is this entry, " Chartley. 

 ■Chopped a fox on the Moss, and some boys killed one in 

 a trap. Hounds went away with another, and the field 

 lost them entirely. At the end of three hours, Tom 

 found them in Bagot's Woods." The master was not 

 out. 



