ROWLAND HUNT AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 49 



'' The pack was very uneven. One hound ' Forester ' was 

 over twenty inches. He killed a lot of hares for us, but was 

 always a long way ahead of the pack and prevented their being 

 covered with the proverbial sheet, so we weren't really sorry 

 when a G.W.R. express put an end to his career on the main 

 line near Slough. Our best sport was in the country between 

 Taplow and Slough, but the railway was always a source of great 

 anxiety to the whips, and there were miraculous escapes of the 

 whole pack being cut to pieces. Lock and his son used to take 

 hounds on to the meet — there was no hound van in those days. 

 We used to exercise on non-hunting days in the Playing Fields, 

 and I can remem.ber some wonderful fast bursts after a cur dog 

 which we often coursed from Upper Club across Sixpenny to the 

 Fives Courts, when he used to get to ground in old Joby's shop. 

 Rather derogatory to the dignity of the hunt officials, but it 

 helped to keep hounds fit. 



" The whips used to get lots of perquisites in the shape of 

 wounded partridges and unsuspecting rabbits, which helped to 

 supplement our evening meal, though hounds were severely rated 

 for running riot ; it was some compensation, after running one's 

 guts out over a heavy plough, to return with a rabbit in the 

 capacious pocket of one's beagle coat ! As far as I remember 

 Barnett's mastership w^as very successful also. He was a 

 wonderful runner, and no day was too long for him, but I don't 

 think he had quite as much * science ' as Barnard. His whips 

 were Charlie Bentinck,* Claud Pennant and myself. I hunted 

 hounds a few times when he was laid up, and I can well 

 remember the difficulty of blowing a horn when one had run 

 oneself to a standstill over Dorney Common or some 50-acre 

 plough. 



'' The Eton beagles taught me a lot about hunting, but the 

 most important lesson I learnt was never to hustle a horse over 

 heavy plough, and I am sure my horses ought to be grateful to 

 the E.C.H. for teaching me this lesson." 



Barnett, as a matter of fact, had a much more successful 

 season than his predecessor, equalling Hunt's record of seventeen 

 hares. His last hunt produced an incident worth recording. 

 *' Our beaten hare," says the Journal Book, "was killed by a 

 lurcher and stolen, but Barnett and Lock went for a policeman 

 while Douglas-Pennant took the hounds home. The policeman, 

 who was a ' nailer ^^ soon got us our hare back." 



* Mistake for Hon. G. Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby. Lord C. 

 Cavendish-Bentinck was first whip next year (1887). 



