First Whipper-in, 107 



country, near Dauntsey station on the Great Western Rail- 

 way. They found their fox at Gretenham great wood, and 

 ran to ground after a grand gallop of three and a half 

 hours on the Swindon side of Highworth, and a point of 

 fourteen miles ; this will always be known as the Greatwood 

 run, and ours was practically the Greatwood run reversed ; 

 it took place on the Thursday fortnight after the Duke's 

 historical run. Bob Worrall was laid up with cold at the 

 time, so Sir William Throckmorton* would hunt hounds him- 

 self. I was second whipper-in, and Sir William despatched 

 me to the end of Red Lodge wood, which was skirted in 

 the Greatwood run, and took the first whip into covert 

 with him ; " if a fox goes away," he says to me, " you 

 holloa with might and main " ; the Red Lodge wood was a 

 long wood running parallel with the Great Western Railway. 

 I 'd no sooner got there than out comes a great whacking 

 fox, more like a wolf than any I had seen before, and 

 crosses the line of railway; we jumps on to the line, the 

 master and myself; I was riding " Cremorne "f a pie-bald 

 horse, good looking as ever you clapped eyes on ! We got 

 on to the line and out of it, the master and myself, safely, 



• " One of the best masters that ever saw light," says Worrall, and from all I have heard, he 

 speaks correctly. He mounted his servants on the very best of cattle, and they seldom 

 got down, though parts of the country required negotiating ! " Cock Roach," " Blue 

 Peter," " Lady Alice," " Lady Jane " and "Bluebell" were all greys, and grand 

 performers, whilst no better hunters ever looked through a bridle than "Hendon" and 

 "Haversley." 



f" Cremorne" was really a skewbald horse, sixteen h.h., and something quite out of the 

 common. As a five year old he was purchased by Mr. T. T. Drake, M.F.H., from Mr. 

 Painter, horse dealer, Bicester, and ridden by " the Squire " a couple of seasons ; then he 

 was sold for about four-hundred guineas to Lord Calthorpe, after which he changed hands 

 several times, until Captain Wharton Wilson, M.F.H. bought him for Stephen Goodall to 

 ride in the V.W.H. Country. When Sir William Throckmorton succeeded as M.F.H. in 

 the V.W.H. Country, the old horse remained at the kennels, and carried Worrall two 

 seasons, then Jack Bevans rode him, and finally Will. Wells, who was astride him when 

 he slipped into a huge deep ditch, near Highworth, and broke his back. Worrall's 

 portrait was painted on this grand horse, and the hound, Nimrod, is in the picture. 



