48 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



indeed " run his head against a stone wall."" I used to have a 

 shield of this description made, and when the solid-looking 

 thing moved, a stag, rather than be followed by it, would jump 

 up into the cart when backed against the barn door ; and it was 

 in this way I loaded for hunting the wildest, and savagest, and 

 most difficult deer. The moment the hunting season concluded, 

 all the surviving deer were sent back again to the park at Berkeley 

 Castle, and enlarged among their fellows ; and to that, as well 

 as their hardy nature, I attribute the superiority of our deer 

 over the generality of those from the royal kennels. Five 

 months in wild companionship undid all former artificial main- 

 tenance, and restored their running. The royal deer from 

 season to season were kept in a paddock. 



Previous to my purchasing a house adjoining the park at 

 Cranford, my sojourn was at the Old Cranford Bridge Inn, then 

 kept, as it had been for a number of years, by Adams. The 

 neighbourhood of Hampton Court and Twickenham was very 

 gay. I belonged to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence"^ 

 Club, and was the president of his Cricket Club, and there were 

 balls and dinner parties without end. The hours I kept not 

 according with those of my mother, it suited me well to live at 

 the inn, and a very jolly life it was. Alas ! for those Hampton 

 Court scenes that have vanished. Alas ! for the thousand 

 happy remembrances associated with that vicinity the wilder- 

 ness, the gardens, and the merry old Toy Inn, where the 

 periodical and public balls used to be held, and I heard and saw 

 what nothing can ever bring back again. One of the things I 

 heard and saw I could have dispensed with. The bar, where 

 old Saunders, with his respectable old white head, used to sit 

 with his niece, had a glass roof, on to which some of the rooms 

 above stairs looked. One night there was a roaring party 

 above, and I was sitting for a moment, ere I went to my room 

 to bed, talking to the old man. Crash went the roof of glass, 

 and down came a cold fowl, the shortest way, I suppose, to the 

 safe ; and in a moment a lobster salad, a cold round of beef, 

 empty bottles, and the contents of dishes, followed each other 



