48 CHASING AND RACING 



straight and rigid maiden. Of course he had lost 

 his way and made a mistake of course. But it is 

 not my metier to enter into a minute description of 

 this ancient pile and its picturesque and well-timbered 

 demesne, but rather to chronicle the sports and 

 pastimes, the spoofs and stunts, which took place within 

 its venerable walls and its spacious environments. 



I have stated that my earliest experience of hunting 

 was with the Trinity (Cambridge) beagles, when those 

 distinguished cricket " blues," George Longman 

 (late of Eton) and George Macan (a contemporary 

 of mine at Harrow) were joint masters. 



But when I came down, and whilst yet my dear 

 old dad was alive, I got together a motley pack at 

 Moat Mount, with which I essayed to harry the timid 

 hare ; but that useful rodent was exceeding scarce 

 in those parts, and it was only occasionally that a 

 mournful sequence of blank days was relieved by a 

 find, and then my "jelly dogs," including the lame, 

 the halt, and the blind, would string out and disperse, 

 each one doing a bit of hunting on his or her own, 

 and not being at all particular as to whether the hare 

 hit on was that of the fugitive lepus, or of the common 

 and odoriferous coney. But I did have a real good 

 chivvy one fine day. Most unexpectedly, a fine old 

 Jack hare was bustled out of a dry ditch and then the 

 fun began ! Our quarry seemed to enjoy the sport 

 and kept ringing around and giving us a kindly view 

 of his russet fur, whenever scent failed and my 



