FROM 1886 TO 1899. 57 



oC the long frost after 'the floods.' I rowed m Trial Eights 

 that year, so I missed the hunting in the latter part of the Half. 

 G. S. Hodgson was Master, and A. W. F. Baird, D. O. Dunlop 

 and Jerry Ward the whips that year. Hodgson and Dunlop were 

 magnificent runners, and were famous for running a dead heat 

 in the Mile. 



" In 1896 Jerry Ward was Master. Poor fellow, he was 

 killed in the late War. I was first whip, the others being 

 Charlie Cavendish, killed at Diamond Hill in South Africa, and 

 Timmy Robarts, of whom I have lost sight. I think we were 

 very unlucky that season. So far as I can remember, we had a 

 considerable number of days when there was little or no scent — 

 owing to cold winds and rain. Jerry Ward made an excellent 

 Master and he knew the country well. He and I had run for 

 several seasons. He left hounds to themselves and let them work 



A DISAPPOINTING FINISH. 



out their line, and did not continually lift them, as is so often 

 done. We were all very keen, and I feel sure that with a little 

 more luck we should have had a good season. As it was, I 

 believe it was one of the worst on record. We were also very 

 unlucky with fresh hares. I can remember fresh hares getting 

 up in front of hounds on several occasions when we had our 

 hunted hare done. 



'* The holes in the Stoke Park palings were a terrible 

 stumbling block in those days ; hares continually used to baffle us 

 by reaching them and ' safety.' I don't know whether they 

 bother you still. 



" I remember a good hunt being spoilt by a retriever dog at 

 Langley Village. It chased our hare into some nursery gardens, 

 in which we later found it again. A. D. Legard, Robin Lubbock, 

 who died a few years later from a boating accident, Henry 

 Burroughes and the two Pawsons were amongst the first flighters 

 that year. I had to row again in Trial Eights, which cut my 

 season short, and in the photograph of a meet I see A. D. Legard 



