212 Reminiscences of & 



got them fairly stopped. Claxon was riding Mr. Ord'^s old 

 chestnut pony " Gipsy," and I was on " Stewardess," who 

 was frightened to death when the donkey trumpeted, and did 

 nothing but rear, so I could not get near them, and they 

 soon got out of Claxon's hounds. Willie laughed ; indeed, it 

 was " game pie " for him. This little run of ours on the 

 quiet was kept very snug for a time, but it afterwards oozed 

 out, and a well-known local farmer and fox preserver, who 

 " let it out," used to chaff us when we had a difficulty in 

 finding a fox, that he would fetch our old friend of the 

 " Copelaw run," as he used to humourously term it. 



Whilst on the donkey tack I may say that there is nothing 

 so troublesome as a stupid donkey to a pack of foxhounds, 

 and so annoying to hunt servants. One in particular belonged 

 to an underkeeper at Wynyard, called Freestone, and when- 

 ever the hounds were in the neighbourhood of Wynyard he 

 was bound to be in the midst of it, and on several occasions 

 he would hunt with us all day, and follow us home to the 

 kennels at night. He could get over, under or through any 

 place, and nothing but a locked gate or door would keep 

 him back. I used to get my whip round his neck and drag 

 him away to some place where we could get him shut up, 

 but unless really under lock and key he would get out 

 again, and turn up as great a nuisance as ever. The keeper 

 used to ride him in the woods, and use him for carrying 

 ferrets or rabbits or such like jobs, and probably had him 

 tethered somewhere in the woods, when he would break 

 loose somehow or other and join us. Of course if he knew 

 for certain that we were coming he would keep him in the 

 stable. If Freestone couldn't hear tell of him being shut 

 up at a farm house or what not, he would come to the 

 kennels, knowing that he would probably have followed us 



