210 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1894 



CHAPTER XVIL 



THE YEAR OF THE GREAT FROST — SIR PETER WALKER's 

 DINNER TO THE MEYNELL HUNT — THE WETTEST 

 SEASON EVER KNOWN — END OF THE SEASON 1894- 

 1895 — MR. CALDECOTT — GREAT RUN FROM THE BATH, 



HOAR CROSS THE FIRST DAY ON WHICH STEPHEN 



CARRIED THE HORN — THE GREAT HILL RUN TO ELTON 

 — GOOD RUN FROM BENTLEY CAR — MR. CHARLES 

 GARNETT AND MR. HARTLEY. 



1894-1895. 



This was a good season, though the great frost will always 

 remain its chief feature. 



The writer feels that justice has hardly been done to 

 the season which preceded it, for there were so many good 

 gallops which really deserve to be mentioned, the difficulty 

 being which to select. There was one run in which the fox 

 took a very unusual line and which gave rise to an 

 amusing incident. This was when hounds crossed the 

 river opposite Marchington station, and Mr. " Chev '^ 

 Bateman and Mr. "Bill" Power tried to swim it with the 

 water bank high. They collided just when they got under 

 the steep walled-up bank on the far side, and the end of 

 it was that neither of them got over. The fox had gone 

 from the Hare Park to Lake Banks, then by "West 

 Broughton to Maresfield Gorse, up the hill for Somersal, 

 and back again to Sudbury Bottoms, where several foxes 

 were on foot. Leaving that covert, he went by the top of 

 the Aldermoor, by Somersal and Brocksford, down to the 

 river, which he crossed opposite Marchington station. 



