84 CHASING AND RACING 



soft-mouthed and amiable beasts compared with Miss 

 Westbourne. 



At this time I had unrestricted enjoyment of the 

 excellent fishing on the Chess, which runs through the 

 Latimer demesne, where I enjoyed some perfect days 

 and evenings. On one of the latter I had something 

 like a repetition of the fishing adventure at Missenden, 

 as recounted in an earlier chapter ; for late in May I 

 discovered a run at the foot of a fall, where the big 

 fellows, in single file, procured nightly their entymo- 

 logical rations. It was a case of " One landed, t'other 

 come on ! " until I had four and a half brace of beauties 

 (not one of which was under 2 lbs.) laid out neatly in a 

 row. Here again ** the coachman ** proved what a 

 deadly fly it is, of a late spring or early summer evening, 

 after sunset. 



The shooting was not so good, but it was a pleasant 

 interlude on off days, and we generally managed to 

 make a respectable mixed bag. But the best of sport 

 with the gun was that which I enjoyed on the extensive 

 farm of the before-mentioned " Jimmy " Woods ; for it 

 was well stocked with the little brown birds, and as 

 Jimmy and his other friends were deadly shots, our tally 

 was a very satisfactory one. 



I had one or two good days with the Drakes at 

 Shardeloes. Here I was up against a very deadly 

 wielder of the gun in the person of the rector of 

 Amersham, a sporting parson of the old school, the 

 Rev. Edward Drake, to wit, who made a name for 



