CHAPTER V. 



Sir George O. Wombwell and the Hon. Egremont 



Lascelles. 



Sir George Wombwell began his mastership with Peter 

 Collinson as huntsman and Will Powter as first whipper-in. 

 The season began inauspiciously, and a dread fatality 

 seemed to have come over the country, for before the 

 cub-hunting season was fairly in swing, poor Will Powter 

 met with a fatal accident. Hounds were at Askham Bogs, 

 and had been rimning abotit the coverts all the morning, 

 l)ut though there was a large field out, no one saw the 

 .accident happen, and the first intimation that anything 

 was wrong was the horse galloping riderless. Powter's 

 body was found near a gap, with a half open hurdle stuck 

 in it, and a rather blind ditch. He had been over the 

 place, which was nothing of a jump, several times in the 

 course of the morning, and it is surmised that the horse, 

 a nervous, irritable animal, had been caught by something 

 and had kicked his rider off, dislocating his neck, as there 

 was nothing to lead to the supposition that the horse had 

 ever been down. An account in a newspaper of the time 

 says that Powter's cap was delved, and a bruise was on 

 the left side of his head, and intimates that he died shortly 



