Captain Middleton 



were always a picture worth looking at, and one too that 

 always caught the eye. He was the first man, indeed, to 

 give me an idea of what riding straight to hounds really 

 meant. 



" Like a good lawn-tennis player who never seems to budge 

 and to whom the ball always seems to come by itself, ' Bay ' 

 to any one following him appeared to ride straight before 

 him, neither looking to right or to left, while both hounds, and 

 the right places in the fences, seemed always to come his 

 way exactly where they ought to be. The secret of this is 

 that a really good man to hounds knows exactly what is 

 going on and what will happen, and the moment he jumps 

 into a field, where he will and ought to jump out of it. There 

 is then no hesitation, and everything is plain sailing. This 

 ' Bay ' knew better how to do than anybody I ever saw. 

 I never shall forget a run I took part in once with the North 

 Warwickshire, from Shuckborough to Weedon Bushes, in 

 company with Willoughby de Broke, George Lambton, and 

 ' Bay.' We were all four practically run away with, down 

 the hill from Shuckborough over the hard mole hills and at 

 the bottom of it, a freshly cut, very stiff binder, with the cut 

 off branches still lying before the fence, and a big brook 

 beyond. Being young and full of ' go,' I won't say that we 

 weren't riding a bit jealous of one another. But that is 

 neither here nor there. What I do know is, that after landing 

 on the other side, we found that not one of the field was 

 anything near us, with the result that we had this brilliant 

 run entirely to ourselves. 



" As a pilot to the Empress, he was quite the right man 

 in the right place, and unquestionably she preferred him in 

 that capacity to any one else. In addition, Her Majesty — 

 who always addressed him as ' Bay ' — had a great private 



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