OVER BANK AND TIMBER. Ill 



pipes. Here he used to sit for hours at a time, 

 and at his death he made provision for the warm- 

 ing apparatus to be kept in working order. 



When Countess's hunting days were over Mr 

 Merthyr Guest had her for a brood mare, and she 

 bred Damon by Wild CharHe. Damon became 

 the property of Sir Elliott Lees, who won the 

 Blackmore Vale point-to-point on him in 1888, and 

 in the following year was first in the House of 

 Commons point-to-point in the Vale of Aylesbury. 



Speaking of Sir Elliott Lees reminds me of one 

 or two good days I had with the South Dorset 

 Hounds, the season he had them. His reign was 

 all too short, and when he resigned he presented 

 the hounds to the country. At the present time 

 (1903-4) Mr Ashton EadclyfFe has them, and a 

 very good gallop with him from Castle Hill, when 

 hounds ran both fast and well, lives in my 

 memory. 



It was an ambition of mine, which for many 

 years was never fulfilled, to see the monarch of 

 the glen in his native heather. I had often heard 

 my father describe the hunting in the New Forest 

 with the Queen's Hounds, which at one time 

 always finished up the season there. At last came 

 my chance, and I was ofiered a day with the New 

 Forest Deerhounds at Boden Wood. On a warm 

 day in April we trained down, and after a very 

 pretty drive from the station reached the fixture, 

 to find the tufters already hard at work. Miss 

 Lovell carried the horn in the absence of her 



