HOME DETAILS 237 



looked after by my friend and assistant, Mr. James 



E. Heard, who has always been very 

 Mr. Heard. i i • i 



thorough ; and during the seventeen 



years we have been together we have not had the 

 slightest misunderstanding. He was introduced 

 to me by my friend Mr. E. H. Pares, of Hop well 

 Hall, Derby, who is his brother-in-law. Mr. Heard 

 is a great sport and a first-rate shot. He formerly 

 hunted his own hounds in Canada, and has now 

 joined my son Fred. 



When I was away racing on one occasion a man 

 came to the side door at Beckhampton, walked 

 A strange straight in, and opened the breakfast- 

 visitor room door, where Mrs. Darling was 

 sitting. He was looking so awfully wild that she 

 flew through the room to find a servant. In the 

 meantime the man had gone to the kitchen door, 

 and was shouted at by the servants. 



" By the holy Moses, where am I ? " cried the 

 man. 



They were very frightened, and rang the yard 

 bell for the boys. When the boys came they 

 asked him to move. He was very reluctant to 

 go. However, they showed him the points of 

 the stable forks, and then he went up the main 

 road at the forks' points, and nothing more was 

 seen of him until the morning. When I drew up 

 the blind next day I saw a man Ijang on the side 



