1895] MR. CALDECOTT. 217 



Meynell country at any rate, they take a good deal of 

 catching." A voice, "You have not caught one yet." 

 Needless to say, Mr. Caldecott is a bachelor. "I'm not 

 quite so quick as you," was the rejoinder, " but perhaps I 

 may do so, after all." 



He had a capital chestnut horse. Prospector, a difficult 

 horse to stop and turn, but very fast and an undeniable 

 fencer. This horse cleared a post and rails in the Walton 

 country with a fifteen-foot dyke on the taking off side — a 

 remarkable performance. The place was measured next 

 day by Mr. Whittiugham, a very hard-riding farmer, who 

 lived close by. But if a friend had come to grief Mr. 

 Caldecott would have stopped in an instant, relinquishing 

 his pride of place, to go to his assistance. A fairer man 

 never rode over a country. He liked to be first, but there 

 was no jealousy about him. " The reason why Caldecott is 

 so often alone with hounds," some one once remarked, "is 

 that he gallops so." And the remark was a true one. He 

 has the gift of galloping which so few men possess. There is 

 another thing about him too, which sets him apart from the 

 crowd. He never says an unkind thing of any one, and, 

 more remarkable still, no one has a word to say against him. 



This was a remarkable season, which will always be 

 known as the year of the great hill runs. It began with a 

 fox, in cub-hunting time, taking an unusual line on 

 October 28th from Darley Moor to Ambergate station, 

 where they killed him, after a good hunting run of two 

 hours and a quarter, and a nine-mile point. There were 

 some anxious moments when the hounds were in the 

 tunnel, but luckily no train came. Absolute, and her 

 rather plain daughter. Goodness, led nearly all the way. 



Sport was decidedly good on the whole all the time up 

 to Christmas, and on December 16th came the first of the 

 hill runs mentioned above. They found at 2.20 in the 

 Lime-kiln Covert, Snelston, and hunted slowly, skirting 

 Raddle Wood, by Hope Wood (Norbury), down to the 

 railway, which was crossed opposite Calwich. Here they 

 turned right-handed along the river, which they crossed 



