10 THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



with here and there a horseman maldng a line for his stable 

 by himself. 



"Seen these new people at The Chase yet'?" asks a tall, 

 well-groomed man of his companion. 



" No, I have not. But I am going there to call — well, as 

 we can't hmit, I shall probably go there this afternoon," replies 

 the other, whose neat, black coat, of peculiar cut, dark breeches 

 and ' choker ' proclaim him, at sight, a parson. " They're in 

 my parish, and came to church last Sunday," he adds. 



" I know. I saw them. Old man looks rather a — well, I 

 should hardly take him for a sportsman, eh ? " 



"Hardly — hold up, horse!" as the ecclesiastical weight- 

 carrier struck a huge stone with his toe and tripped over it. 

 " However, they may be very nice people, and even if he 

 doesn't hunt himself, he may be friendly to the sport. Hope 

 he is, as a lot of that grass land over towards Thorpe-Herons 

 goes with the house, you know." 



The other. Sir Peter Mills, a J. P., and large landowner in 

 that and the surrounding parishes, nodded his head. 



"Yes — two or three very useful coverts they have, too. 

 Pump him, Geoffry, will you, and if he's at all inclined to cut 

 up rough about the hounds, we must get the Duke to call, you 

 know. That usually has the effect of putting things straight." 



For be it known that His Grace of Haughtyshire could be, 

 and was, ' all things to all men.' The farmers in the district 

 hunted by the Haughtyshire Foxhounds were almost all 

 sportsmen, or at least favourable to sport. But here and 

 there one would turn rusty, or make complaints, some reason- 

 able, some very much the reverse : Jorker would put up an 

 impossible post and rails just where the foxes invariably broke 



