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 seem.ed to enjoy the sport 

 and kept ringing around and giving us a kindly view 

 of his russet fur, whenever scent failed and my 



