50 BEAUFORT HUNT: PAST AND PRESENT. 



hard when he came to the Tadpole brook at an unjumpable phice. 

 When in the air, thinking it was all U P, and that he was bound to 

 go bang into the middle of it, he felt his horse give a sort of second 

 spring as if he had doubled off an imaginary island, and was landed 

 safe on the other side. I believe similar cases are not unknown. 



Later on in the sixties he had a very good grey horse, " Blue Pill," 

 bought out of a drove of Irish horses that came over here. His 

 portrait, with my father on him, is in Sir Reginald Graham's " Fox- 

 hunting Recollections." One day when riding him my father got 

 away with hounds from Great Wood a field in front of anyone else, 

 ran over the Brink worth brook into the V.W.H. country, through 

 Woodbridge to Braydon Pond plantation, without anybody over- 

 taking him, which says a good deal for " Blue Pill," considering 

 Tom Clark, George Fordham, and Custance, who I imagine were all 

 riding about half my father's weight, were amongst the competitors. 

 When I sent the photograph to Sir I^. Graham for his book I men- 

 tioned this anecdote, and in his reply he said " I remember Blue 

 Pill very well, and find in my diary the day which you mention, 

 March 22nd, 1864. Met at L)nieham Green, from Great Wood 

 fast to Woodbridge in V.W.H. country, and killed about 35 min. 

 All grass. I remember it was much talked about for a long time : 

 your father. Lord Vivian, Pincher Sutton, Fordham, and Clark 

 were the only ones anywhere near." Mr. Sam Ferris, of Bradford, 

 lately told me it was he who originally bought " Blue Pill " for £28 ! 



My father had wonderful hands, eye, and nerve. I recollect 

 him telling me that in his younger days during a run that the fences 

 were quite a secondary consideration to him, the only thing he 

 thought of was how with his weight he was going to get to the end 

 of it. The way this was accomplished is very well described by 

 Davenport Bromley in a book entitled " Sport," in which my father 

 is depicted as the hero, sailing over oxers and ridge and furrow in 

 Leicestershire. 



Yours sincerely, 



C. N. Miles. 

 February, 1914. 



The Late Sir Nigel Kingscote, K.C.B. 



Recollections of the Beaufort Hunt would not be complete without 

 reference being made to that best of good sportsmen, Sir Nigel Kings- 

 cote, of Kingscote, Colonel Henry has been fortunate enough to 

 have obtained some records of him from his brother, Mr. Thomas 

 Kint'scote, M.V.O., a few of which are appended, and will, it is 

 thought, prove of interest. 



