COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 47 



kennel lameness, and the kennels were decidedly 

 unhealthy. When the water was high in the river 

 all the drains were stopped, as there was very little 

 fall. We set to work to remedy this. We raised 

 the benches four feet from the ground, with a sloping 

 platform for the hounds to walk up, and were careful 

 to have the cesspool frequently emptied, which had 

 the desired effect. 



I got possession of Mancetter Manor-house on 

 2nd August. On 5th August went out to exercise 

 with thirty-five couple of bitches in Arbury Park. 

 Jim and I were riding ponies, Stephen, " School- 

 boy ". The deer kept jumping up among the ferns. 

 The hounds behaved pretty well for some time, but 

 some of the young ones got too far away from me, 

 cocked their ears, and made a bolt after a fawn. 

 The old ones stopped for a minute, but hearing the 

 cry away the whole concern went behind a round 

 plantation. I galloped round the other side, met 

 them and succeeded in stopping them the first 

 time ; but there was such a lot of them that the 

 stragglers broke away again, and we had three 

 packs running hard. Stephen was run away with 

 to the other end of the park ; Jim galloped his 

 pony to a stand-still. I thought I had better have 

 one hunt than three, so I blew my horn, and got 

 almost all the hounds together and hunted a doe 

 into one of the canals. She was swimming and all 

 the hounds swimming after her. I jumped off my 

 pony, ran into the canal, caught the deer, got my 

 arm round her neck and stopped the hounds. One 



