io6 THE OLD BERKS HUNT 



whip, and remarked, " D — n it, sir, I was over 

 first." He was assisted by Jem Hills, who 

 came to him from the Duke of Beaufort. He 

 is said to have quarrelled with Hills tremend- 

 ously, and once made him get off his horse 

 and walk home. 



Mr. Moreton was once nearly drowned in 

 the Thames, near Buscot, with a lot of bank 

 notes in his pocket to pay election expenses, 

 many of which were damaged and spoilt. 



He soon found, like Lord Kintore, that the 

 country was inconveniently large to be hunted 

 as thoroughly as demanded, and complaints of 

 neglect arose in both the eastern and western 

 extremities. It was too large to be hunted 

 from one centre, and the question of division 

 arose. Mr. Moreton, like Lord Kintore, had 

 always rather favoured the western portion, 

 and he now arranged to give up the west and 

 centre forming the new country now known 

 as the " Vale of White Horse." This course 

 was naturally much objected to by the sup- 

 porters of the original hunt, and Mr. Thomas 

 Duffield took up the cudgels for the supporters 

 of the original hunt. Young Mr. Goodlake 

 wrote as follows : — 



My Dear Mr. Duffield, — I have this instant 

 received your letter. I had been cruising with a 

 friend in his yacht (with Mr. J. Loder Symonds in 

 his R.Y.S. cutter " Emerald "). 



