74 THE ETON COLLEGE HUNT. 



recall well one afternoon during an Ascot week when I went up 

 to the kennels. Champion had talked more than usual, and the 

 subject was so absorbing that I quite forgot about Absence, and 

 had to chase Mr. Booker down Keate's Lane to try and explain 

 my absence. The explanation was accepted. Perhaps Mr. 

 Booker had forgotten that we made rather a mess in his garden 

 where I killed my first hare with the E.C.H. ! The kennels at 

 Datchet still must be the best beagle kennels in England. 



'* There is one point I would like to bring up, though it is 

 no concern of mine. That is the breeding of hounds at Eton. 

 Far too little breeding seems to have taken place always. It is 

 much more interesting and better to breed your own hounds from 

 approved working strains than to be compelled to buy hounds 

 whose hunting qualifications and those of their sires and dams 

 are usually unknown. There is naturally no great incentive for 

 a Master, who can only look forward to hunting hounds one 

 season, to breed a lot of puppies when he may never see them 

 hunt a hare. 



** All the same, now the War is over, it is suggested, say for 

 two or three seasons, that every good hunting bitch be bred 

 from, and good stud dogs in other packs used, providing of 

 com'se there are not good stud dogs within the kennel. Fresh 

 blood is always good, and I know the temptation of using your 

 own best stallion hound too much. There must be many keen 

 subscribers to the E.C.H. who would be only too pleased to walk 

 puppies, and it will add to their keenness immensely to see their 

 own ' walks ' hunting, and to follow their career as long as they 

 are at Eton. It is far better, I think, to breed hounds to hunt 

 and not to win cups, and a bad motive to sacrifice hunting powers 

 for looks, but it is possible to combine both, and it would be very 

 pleasing for all Old Etonians interested in beagling, and a great 

 credit to the Master of the E.C.H., if he were to produce beagles 

 capable of winning at the annual Harrier and Beagle Show at 

 Peterborough. 



" I had one red-letter day during my Mastership. It was 

 from Remenham on February 11th, 1911. A hare was 

 found on the plough near the Park, and after a circle opposite 

 the ' Bells of Ouseley ' hounds pushed her away towards Wrays- 

 bury station, where the railway was crossed. Without a 

 semblance of a check Horton village was passed on the right and 

 the hare swam the River Colne. A fine stretch of grass country 

 lay in front and hounds were now screaming. Past Wraysbur)^ 

 Butts the line lay over the Colnbrook Line to Staines Moor, 

 where our hare squatted near Staines station. Hounds worked 



