THE GOLDEN AGE, 1899— 19H, 73 



liounds, and was a real good judge of a hound himself. During 

 the War I met him in Flanders, just before he was killed serving 

 with the Rifle Brigade. He was the same as ever, and from every 

 account as good a soldier as he Avas a sportsman and Etonian. I 

 still have a vivid recollection of a hunt during Barclay's Master- 

 ship. We met at Dorney Village on March 8th, 1910. We 

 found in Thames Big Field and ran nearly to Taplow, and then 

 sharp back parallel with the river past Eoveney Church and across 

 Dorney Common to the Sanatorium and over the Golf Links to 

 Cuckoo Weir Bridge. Here the hare swam the river, which was 

 in high flood, and ' made ' the other bank nearly 100 yards lower 

 down stream. Luckily a punt was handy, and, though we lost 

 more ground (or rather water) than our hare had, Barclay took 

 two and a half couple of his best hounds with him, ' Warwick,' 

 * Leicester,' 'Driver,' * Fairplay ' and 'Dauntless,' and killed 

 his hare in the paddock on Windsor Racecourse after a very fine 

 hunting run of an hour and 33 minutes. We had several other 

 good hunts that season, but the one described above remains 

 more vivid than some of the others. 



''As regards my own Mastership in 1910 — 1911. It was 

 through no fault of my own that we had (up till then) a record 

 season and killed 13 J brace of hares in 36 hunting days. The 

 three whips, L. C. Gibbs, W. P. Browne, now Master of Lord 

 Portman's Foxhounds, and W. Holland-Hibbert, were all experts 

 and just as capable, and probably more so, of killing a hare as 

 I was. The previous Masters, Menzies and Barclay, had between 

 them bred from the best hunting strains and moulded a good 

 working pack, all of which were workers, and this is a great 

 asset in a pack of beagles. No word of praise can be too high 

 for Champion for what he has done for the E.C.H. His position 

 is probably unique, as all past and present Etonian members of 

 the E.C.H. must know, and yet, though he always had his hounds 

 fit and well, and despite the fact that he practically lived with 

 them, he was always able to ' put hounds on ' to the Master and 

 to render valuable assistance in whipping in and getting some 

 very useful ' views.' This is a hard accomplishment to achieve 

 when a kennel huntsman has to feed and exercise hounds, and 

 when the Master and huntsman has very little time to get his 

 hounds to know him well and properly, or to supervise kennel 

 management himself. It was a rare occurrence to have a sick 

 hound in kennel during the hunting season, and the kennels 

 themselves were always spick and span and clean. He was good 

 company always, and I have spent many Sunday and other after- 

 noons in listening to his yarns of hounds and hunts gone by. I 



