THE GOLDEN AGE, 1899— 19U. 77 



invited beaglers in a second horse-brake. Col. Van de Weyer 

 was always very good about giving leave, and generally sent a 

 mounted groom to stop hounds from the fox coverts on 



the hill. 



*' The best bit of country was on the river side of the road, 

 nearly all grass. I had a very good day there in my season. 

 The first hare hounds caught in the river after 25 minutes, but 

 she sank and was not recovered, though St. George dived for 

 her several times. The next hare was killed on the golf course 

 after 1 hour 15 minutes. Very pretty hunting, and a third was 

 also accounted for after a short hunt. 



" The other two bits of the country I liked best were Dorney 

 (Village and Gate) and Remenham. There was generally a fox 

 at Dorney beyond the village, and we killed one there in 1913, 

 but without much of a run. 



'' I think trying to catch a fox with beagles (unless it is a 

 very bad fox or a cripple, both of which should be killed) is an 

 unsatisfactory game, as hounds always take some time to settle 

 down again to a hare. I remember hearing complaints just after 

 the War that the Motor Depot at Salt Hill would cut a very 

 large and important slice out of the E.G. H. country. Personally 

 I should have been quite glad never to have hunted there at all, 

 owing to innumerable hares and the risk of the G.W.R. main 

 line. At the same time Mr. Christie-Miller of Britwell was 

 always glad to see the E.C.H., but certainly before the War 

 the number of hares was heart-breaking. Talking of the railway 

 reminds me of the only occasion where I saw a hound of the 

 E.C.H. killed on the line. It was in Gibbs' season, and hounds 

 had checked by the railway bridge at Remenham. We heard a 

 train coming, and as it approached were sure that hounds were 

 ' all on.' But May and I had made a mistake, and one puppy 

 had gone across into the little spinney beyond the line, and now 

 came back right under the train. 



*' But after hunting near the G.W.R. , with its express every 

 two minutes, it was maddening to lose a hound on the Datchet 

 Line. Yet this is just what happened with the Trinity Beagles 

 at Cambridge before the War. The accident happened on the 

 rotten little line to Mildenhall ! 



"As regards the Masters at Eton who came out, I can 

 remember seeing Messrs. Dobbs, Churchill, Slater and Young, 

 but the most regular beagler was Mr. Dobbs. 



" Reference will have been made by my predecessors to the 

 late Mr. R. S. de Havilland for all he did for the E.C.H., not 

 only in keeping the finances straight, but in taking ' bills off 



