COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 123 



In April Charlie went up for his army examina- 

 tion. His tutor, Faithful, wrote to me saying that 

 he might pass very well, or perhaps not at all, and 

 said it would be a good thing if I would go to London 

 to keep the boys from going to the theatre. I went 

 and stayed in lodgings in Jermyn Street, with twelve 

 or fourteen candidates and their tutor. Mr. Stopford 

 and I used to wait at the end of the Burlington Arcade 

 and capture the boys when they came out to luncheon, 

 give them their luncheon, and send them in again to 

 Burlington House. The result in Charlie's case was 

 quite satisfactory, for he passed seventh of the lot. 



I saw in the papers that Lord Wolverton's 

 bloodhounds were to meet on the 28th, at Boldre 

 Wood, in the New Forest. I got up at five o'clock 

 in the morning, put on a suit of flannels, took a thick 

 stick, and got into the six o'clock train to Lyndhurst 

 station, went on the top of the 'bus to Lyndhurst 

 town, and set off to tramp to the meet. I was over- 

 taken by Mr. Cumberledge, one of the Rangers of 

 the Forest, whom I had formerly met. 



On arriving at the meet the first person I saw 

 was George Whyte- Melville. He said, "Hullo! 

 this won't do ; you on your feet ! " He then went 

 to Frank Lovell, who produced one of the keeper's 

 ponies. It was a beautiful forest pony, about four- 

 teen hands high, and could carry any weight. Lord 

 Wolverton bought it the next day. 



They proceeded to draw several large plantations, 

 and had several deer on foot. One at last went 

 away with about half the hounds on the line. The 



