COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 129 



was a very tall man, and they fitted fairly, but I burst 

 them both across the knees before I got home. 



Last day of the season, 5th April. Killed 

 twenty-one and a half brace foxes, twelve brace to 

 ground. 



At the end of my first season Will Davies left. 

 He had very bad health. He took a small farm 

 near Witherley, but did not live very long after. I 

 engaged Stephen Goodall ; he was then first whip 

 to Sir John Power with the Kilkenny Hounds. He 

 had commenced in Fife in 1842 under Walker. He 

 was a tall thin man, a first-rate horseman and good 

 whip. He was afterwards with Mr. Lane Fox, and 

 in the V.W. H. country. 



Season 1848-49. Commenced on the 3ist 

 August at Weddington Wood. 



Tom Smart, the horse-dealer at Slough, sent me 

 a message that he had a horse to suit me. Mr. 

 Assheton Smith had bought him and returned him. 

 He was a very nervous horse ; if you touched his 

 side with your toe in mounting he would jump away. 

 I went to Slough to see him. He was a great fine well- 

 bred horse, and old Smart had sent him out with the 

 Queen's Hounds the day before to make him quiet. 

 He said, "He's hardly fit to show, but get on him 

 and try if you can knock the wind out of him ". I 

 got on at the stable-door, which was in a ploughed 

 field, and galloped away. He could gallop well, and 

 was a real good-winded horse, so I bought him for 

 ^130. He could kick me off whenever he liked. I 



called him " Chloroform ". 

 VOL. i. 9 



