234 



CHAPTER XIII. 



ECHOES OF THE CHASE. 



From beyond those hunting -fields in which my 

 own experience has been gained echoes of the 

 chase in other countries and other times have 

 reached me at all periods of my life. From my 

 father and his friends came those of the old-time 

 worthies, of many of whom I have spoken in the 

 earlier part of this book, but from farther afield 

 stray echoes have floated down, some of M^hich by 

 very reason of their antiquity may be new to many 

 of the present day. 



Nowhere do these memories, old and new, crowd 

 more upon me than when I am surrounded by the 

 wonderful collection of hunting-horns that belong 

 to Mr Merthyr Guest of Inwood, who has over 160 

 of these trophies of the chase. To Masters and 

 huntsmen whose fame in most cases has spread far 

 and wide wherever the chase of fox and hare is 

 followed, these horns have been presented by those 

 whose keenness in the field has been no less than 

 that of the men whose duty it was to show them 

 sport. Most of these horns are but the ordinary 



