10 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



yclept a habit, and I was promised days on Topsy, 

 the most wonderful of ponies. I have her picture 

 now. She was only fourteen hands, and cleared a 

 five-foot wall in her time. 



My first day's hunting is a mere foggy blur of 

 bliss ; it was with horses and there was jumping, 

 people fell, and hounds yelled and the hares 

 escaped ; what more could the heart of a child 

 desire ? 



The foxhounds were a keener joy, though I 

 fancy that a zealously careful groom saw that I 

 did not see much of them, for I can remember a 

 great deal of galloping on the roads and gaining 

 my first brush by coming up on the road just as 

 they killed near Islandmore. I am sure that I 

 thought I had earned it thoroughly. Nothing 

 would induce me to go home that evening until 

 the hounds did. 



The bad times must have come just about then, 

 before my hunting had gone far. The meet at 

 which they finally stopped Mr. Gubbins, he had 

 taken the foxhounds then, was at our gate. They 

 would not let Mr. Delmege hunt just then. 



I was walking. I can see still the big deter- 

 mined Master with his cap off, a habit of his when 

 he was perplexed, sitting on his weight carrier 

 with a crowd round him. They wanted to tem- 

 porise, to let everyone else hunt if one was 

 stopped. 



There was no temporising about Mr. Jack 



