272 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



have drawn somewhat lavishly on his imagination with regard 

 to the pace they went, or the king saw little of it. They had, 

 we learn from the same authority, a rattling day from Alder- 

 maston to Eeading, when his Majesty's horses were both 

 knocked up, and he returned to "Windsor in a cart, beguiling 

 the way with country talk of stock and crops. I learn from 

 another authority, and a very good one, that the king had, as 

 many a scion of royalty has since, a pioneer or pilot, who 

 jumped the fences before him. " Upon one occasion," says 

 the author to whom I allude, "the leader had already per- 

 formed his part, and the king was less eager to follow, the 

 obstacle in question being somewhat greater than usual. 

 'John has gone over, your Majesty,' said a certain noble- 

 man, anxious to recall the king from what he imagined to 

 be a casual forgetfulness or absence of mind. 'Has heV replied 

 his Majesty, not much pleased with the interference; 'then you 

 may go after him.' His Majesty liked a fifteen-hand, smart 

 little horse, and had one called Perfection, which carried him for 

 many years, but the bay Hobby was his Majesty's last and best. 

 By the royal order, no hand but Mr. Davis's was permitted to 

 shoot him." 



On another occasion, they had a great run from Stoke, Colonel 

 Vyse's place, near Slough, to No Man's Land in Hertfordshire, 

 near St. Alban's. When the deer was taken, his Majesty 

 asked what place it was, and, on being told I^o Man's Land, 

 replied, "Then it's my land!" 



Early in the present century, the Marquis of Cornwallis had the 

 golden couples, and a man named Sharp carried the horn. The 

 hounds were removed from the kennels in Windsor Great Park 

 to Ascot Heath, where they now stand, on account of kennel 

 lameness, but the remedy was not efficacious until Charles 

 Davis came in office, and had false flooring put down, which 

 set matters to rights. Sharp was terribly tried by it, and used 

 to take the pack to Brighton and make them swim after him 

 in a boat, but it was to little purpose. The old king took 



