3/8 REMINISCENCES^OF 



middle of the field. The hounds got a capital start. 

 There was one big black dog, a very hard runner, 

 that had not been fed ; he got away first and was 

 first all day, and the others ran after him. They ran 

 for an hour without a vestige of a check into Grafton 

 country, through Salcey Forest. As I opened the 

 gate at the top of the ride I saw the fox cross at 

 the bottom of the ride and the hounds about a 

 hundred yards behind him, and they ran into him 

 in the next field outside the wood. About the middle 

 of the run Harry Sanders got into a ditch with a 

 horse called "Absalom" on the top of him, and I 

 believe Lord Spencer assisted at the rescue, and 

 afterwards bought Absalom. He was heard exclaim- 

 ing, " Help ! help ! I'm d d if I shan't be killed ! 



Oh, my poor children ! " We had a long way to go 

 back into our own country, and I did not do much 

 more in the afternoon. 



5th December. " Valeria" plopped into a brook 

 at Lilburne, and wet me through up to the chin. I 

 was very hot at the time and it took my breath 

 away. I never knew before the meaning of a chill. 

 I woke in the middle of the night and couldn't turn 

 over in my bed. However I got better in the 

 morning, and got on a pony at twelve o'clock and 

 went out to look for the hounds. 



The year 1867 began with a very hard frost, 

 which lasted a fortnight. 



April 2Oth. My father-in-law, Rev. J. Hamilton 

 Gray, died in London. He was rector of Burton-in- 

 the-Wold and Rural Dean of Chesterfield. 



