70 CHASING AND RACING 



suppers and elaborate practical jokes of a highly enter- 

 taining but harmless nature. 



Several young couples, meeting for the first time 

 under our roof, became mutually enamoured, and 

 either sought the altar, where they were condemned to 

 bondage until death or the Divorce Court should 

 release them, or until one or other of the betrothed 

 found that their choice of the moment was but a will 

 o' the wisp — the empty shade of an ideal — which had 

 subsequently melted into nothingness ; and so pulled 

 up and unhitched just in time ! 



I have mentioned that during my third season as 

 Master of the M. and H.V.H. hares had been so scarce 

 that I was in despair ; consequently, after much heart- 

 burning, I made up my mind to allow the Hunt to 

 lapse. 



It was at this juncture that Austen Mackenzie of 

 Taplow Court, Henley, having been offered the Wood- 

 land Pytchly, sent in his resignation as Master of the 

 O.B.H. (West). At the same time Mr. Longman, 

 who had, for many seasons, hunted the East Division 

 of the country, unhappily found his eyesight failing 

 him ; so he, too, announced to his committee that he 

 would not carry on after the close of the season. Now 

 it so happened that one of the best friends I ever had 

 was ** Fred *' Burbidge, whom we dubbed " Uncle 

 Punch," because of his supposed resemblance (in face 

 only) to that hump-backed humorist. He and his 

 wife resided at Micklefield, near Chorleywood. I had 



