FORTY YEARS WITH THE MEYNELL. 117 



country nothing gave him more pleasure than to follow 

 them, and no one ever saw him pounded. Perhaps he 

 and other people may open their eyes when I tell you of 

 his jumping the big open ditch below Hell Meadows in 

 cold blood. But he did it all the same. 



" Tom, like most of the Leedhams, had a sharp tongue, 

 and did not much mind on whom he used it. Like all 

 huntsmen, he hated having his hounds pressed upon. For 

 some reason or another he always thought Stepney rather 

 given to this. One day the latter, near Hoar Cross, 

 happened to jump into a pond, souse overhead. At the 

 first check some one asked, ' Tom, have you heard Captain 

 Stepney is in a pond ? ' ' No, I have na ; but it's t' 

 best place for him.' (Laughter.) 'Nay, but I'm sure it 

 is,' Tom added dryly, without moving a muscle. Stepney 

 was a very neat, dapper sort of man, and used to go well 

 on a famous cream-coloured cob, which he sold to Mr. 

 Arthur Lyon. 



" The best of friends may fall out in the excitement of 

 the chase, and I remember a case in point, though which 

 was in fault I do not recollect. Either Colonel Levett 

 jumped on Colonel Buller, or vice versd, and in a moment 

 they were on their feet, with eyes blazing and strong 

 language flying about. Hugo Meynell Ingram got off" his 

 horse to pacify them, and, what with his stammering and 

 their swearing, it really was very comical. At last they 

 patched it up. Another great swearing match was 

 between Crowder and Walter Boden. It was a tre- 

 mendously good run from Sapperton. These two were 

 the first to jump the brook, but they interfered with one 

 another — I do not know which was to blame — and kept 

 hammering away at one another all the way to Longford, 

 when Crowder's horse stopped dead beat, and that — and 

 nothing else — brought the quarrel to an end. That was 

 a grand run — up to Brailsford Old Gorse — a good ten- 

 mile point, and ail the horses dead beat. 



" I remember^harles jumping on Tom, galloping from 

 Kadburnej to Sutton. It was only a small fence, but 



