76 THE ETOIS COLLEGE HUNT. 



hunting days. The E.C.H. came home one Christmas holidays, 

 and we had the hound van, which was drawn by two grey carriage 

 horses and looked most imposing. Old Mumford, who had a 

 pub. near Windsor Bridge, and who was the keenest follower of 

 all of the E.C.H. , stayed with us these holidays, and was greatly 

 liked by all. The above took place at Braxted in Essex. 



'' We have still got a pack and hunt the New Forest in 

 Hampshire. The pack belonged to the late Sir Frederick 

 FitzWygram, himself an Old Etonian, and was known as the 

 Leigh Park Beagles. They are a splendid lot. Last year we 

 killed 17| brace of hares in 44 days. The Forest hares are 

 strong, and we hardly ever killed one under the hour, and it often 

 took two hours." 



One day from Dorney Gate the E.C.H. burst up four hares, 

 none of which were actually chopped. This is a record, and is 

 likely to remain one, at Eton. 



Some Masters used to take the hounds home with them in the 

 holidays. Romer Williams, Gladstone and Gibbs did this, and 

 hounds fairly raced in the Pytchley country where Romer 

 Williams lived. Champion does not like taking the hounds away 

 from Eton nowadays, but prefers to find someone in the district 

 to hunt them. For the last two years they have been hunted by 

 Mr. Judd, who lives close to Stoke Poges, and handles hounds 

 with considerable ability. 



G. K. Dunning (who only gave up the Mastership of the 

 Trinity Foot Beagles last season) created what was up till then 

 a record for hares killed. He accounted for 33 hares and one 

 fox in 45 hunting days. He has sent me some details of his 

 beagling days at Eton. 



'' One day we went to Fifield Cross Roads on the other side 

 of the river, Col. Van de Weyer having as usual kindly given 

 permission. 



** Late in the afternoon, after a fair day's sport, hounds 

 picked up a line which at first we all thought to be a hare's. 

 But as they went on and got closer to their quarry the old 

 hounds began to get their ' hackles ' up, and a few minutes later 

 they ran into a fox in the middle of the village — a fortunate 

 release for him, as he had had a trap on his leg, poor thing. The 

 sporting Rector of the place was passirg at the time (it is 

 Garth F.H. territory) and was horrified at seeing a fox pulled 

 down like this, but was satisfied when we showed him the 

 trap. 



** This meet at Fifield was a very good one, and we generally 

 went there on whole holidays with about a dozen specially 



