1878—79.] DEATH OF THE DOCTOR. 289 



Mr. llenry Finch and liis mare were charged by someone whose 

 own horse was out of control, were knocked head over heels 

 down the embankment, through the hedge, und into the water 

 meadow beneath. Luckil}-, and wonderfully, no damage was 

 done to anyone ; and it was most amusing to hear, first the 

 expostulations, and then the objurgations, of sundry passen- 

 gers, who were sadh' put out at the dehu', fearing they would 

 thus miss the branch train at Peterborough. It happened, too, 

 that Lady Castlereagh was a passenger in the train and a 

 spectator of the melee. 



"While all this was going on, the pursuit had taken a* ring 

 into the Belvoir country, returning by Wymondham into 

 Stapleford Park ; thence back by Wymondham lioughs — slow 

 hunting all the way. Hounds, however, got up to their fox as 

 he struggled on towai'd AVhissendine, and pulled him down in 

 a small spinney by the riverside. With so poor a scent Neal 

 was fortunate and deserving of all praise that he could give his 

 hounds the fox they had so well earned. 



The Cottesmore were at Beaumont Chase, 8th March, 

 Saturday. They who met them brought back little to tell 

 beyond the scene of a single fence. (Under Wardley Wood, if 

 I remember right.) A small, deceptive hedge tempted the 

 field to jump it in a line. The ditch beyond was altogether 

 out of proportion ; and some five- and-t we nty men fell in a row^ 

 — two of them being left standing with their bridles in their 

 hands. 



Death of the Doctor. — Two events I have to notice. One 

 is of gladness and congratulation, viz., the appearance once 

 more of Lord Wilton ; who, though rather crippled in his 

 riding hand, has taken the field with all his old enjoyment. The 

 other, in a minor but scarcely less general degree, is of regret. 

 The Doctor is dead ! The Doctor had grown to be an insti- 

 tution in Leicestershire. Not only did we all know the old 

 horse ; but we have shivered in our tops agahi and again, Avhen 

 called upon to follow him over high timber or wide bottom. 

 A varied but not unhappy career has been the Doctor's — 



V 



