CHASING AND RACING 47 



trout fishing." These were some of the attractions 

 offered. Forthwith I sent the faithful Ted on a 

 voyage of discovery and inspection. His report was 

 highly favourable. Knowing me for the keen angler 

 I was and ever will be, as long as I can cast a fly, 

 my hefty cousin waxed eloquent as to the " whoppers " 

 he had seen in the narrows (it was then the spawning 

 season) of one of the lakelets, fed by a stream named 

 the Misburn, a little tributary of the Chess. 



Without more ado I hied me to the agents, and in 

 due course found myself fixed up with a three years' 

 tenancy of Missenden Abbey — furnished. Thither 

 I removed my lares and penates as quickly as might 

 be contrived. Then came the absorbing occupation 

 of stocking it. Horses, ponies, dogs, cats, poultry, 

 pigeons, rabbits, pigs, cows, and other domestic details, 

 including guinea-pigs, two monkeys and a grey parrot, 

 were assembled, and the cry was " Still they come ! " 



Those who have seen Missenden Abbey will 

 have appreciated its beauties. It was a vast place, 

 stone flagged in its great hall, and therefore inclined 

 to be so chilly in the autumn and winter months that 

 my coal bill mounted to colossal figures. It took us 

 all much time and thought to find our way about the 

 labrynthine passages and remote quarters. On one 

 occasion a visitor, noted for the strictness of his virtue 

 and his purity of thought, nearly forfeited this care- 

 fully built up reputation by being found at the dead 

 of night in his pyjamas, trying the door of an equally 



