1898] 



AN UNLUCKY SEASON. 



259 



with the Meynell. Influenza attacked the huntsman and 

 distemper laid its hand on the hounds. The pack had 

 escaped scot free for two or three years, and Charles pre- 

 dicted that, when it did come, the three and four season 

 hunters, the mainstay of any pack, would suffer. This pre- 

 diction unfortunately came only too true. Cracker, whom 

 Charles always called his crack hound — a rare good one he 

 was in his looks and in his work — died for one. Villager, 

 by the Belvoir Watchman out of Dashaway, who would 

 have been most valuable for his blood, was another victim. 

 The scars were visible enough in the next year's list, and 

 are hardly obliterated even now. Then there never was a 

 drier cubbing time, without a particle of scent. They 

 were seven or eight days without killing a cub. The 

 same bad luck pursued the Hunt all through. In the 

 middle of it, it was found necessary to have a new second 

 whipper-in, and Albert Martin, who had been at the 

 kennels for eleven seasons, had to leave. Will Cotton, 

 Charles's second horseman, took his place till the end of 

 the season. And, as a climax, the Master broke his collar- 

 bone from a fall with his old favourite, Don Juan, in a 

 good gallop in December. It was said that he could have 

 had five hundred pounds for this horse at one time, and 

 with the Sutton brook looming in front, or any extra big- 

 fence, he was worth it. It was only at one of those little 

 gappy places that he fell. By the kindness of the editor 

 of the Burton Chronicle, the actual account of every day 

 as it occurred is appended. 



ENTERED IN 1898. 



* Walked by Mr. Hammersley, Rocester. f Mr. Poyser, Michover. 



