116 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



" When Hamar Bass took the hounds, he, in my opinion, 

 improved them very much, but sport was not so good. 

 This may be accounted for from their being, on the Derby- 

 shire side especially, hampered by large fields. Then, from 

 the great numbers of foxes, hounds kept chopping and 

 changing all day, and foxes took to running short, so that 

 hounds never got a chance to get clear of the horses, and 

 I think, too, that these short bursts led to much jealous 

 riding and over-riding of hounds. In a long, straight, 

 continuous run, good men are not so anxious at first ; they 

 know they will soon work their way to the front if hounds 

 really run, and they do not get in a flurry at the start. 

 But, in the little scurries, if you do not shove along at 

 once you see nothing, for they are over before men have 

 time to settle down in their places and enjoy themselves 

 quietly. 



" In regard to the Meynell huntsmen, I have known — 

 Tom and Charles — both, at their best, were very hard to 

 beat. Charles has been said, in the last part of his time, 

 not to have ridden up to his hounds. As a young man 

 no one could go quicker than he could, and those who 

 tried to compete with him often found it hard to live with 

 him at all. It is not fair to judge his ability by his later 

 years, when he was suffering from a malady which caused 

 him great pain when in the saddle, and which really ought 

 to have stopped him riding at all. But, whether galloping 

 over the pastures of Longford, or spluttering along the 

 <leep rides in the woods, he had very few equals. All 

 those who remember him in his prime will, I am sure, 

 agree with me, and it is as he was then that we old men 

 like to remember him. The men I have met out hunting- 

 have been many and various. Some would ride up to the 

 tail of hounds without the tremor of an eyelid, such as 

 Sir Matthew Blakiston (a man of iron nerve), Tom Smith 

 (of Clifton), and Michael Bass. The present Lord Burton 

 never cared much about pushing along when hounds were 

 running, but for larking home, after hunting, he was a 

 champion. If he could only get some one to start across 



