200 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



had to lead for a great part of the distance, and when we 

 reached the tandem our troubles were not over, for the leader 

 was in the lead for the first time that day, and would not go 

 in the dark. I think we stopped and changed the positions of 

 the two horses, but anyhow we had a most curious drive, and 

 did not reach Oxford until nearly eleven o'clock, having had 

 no dinner en route. What Mr. Foster-Melliar wrote about 

 the sport shown by the Heythrop I can confirm as far as the 

 season of 1872 is concerned. They were then showing better 

 sport than any of the packs near Oxford, and this was reflected 

 in the size of the fields. Fields were of fair size with the 

 Bicester, too, in those days, but the Heythrop attracted the 

 undergraduate who knew what hunting was, and the trouble 

 of it was that many of the best meets were at a great distance 

 from Oxford, and only to be reached after a very long ride 

 or drive. The Gawcombe Vale, for example, must be twenty 

 miles at least from Alma Mater, but it is a rare country when 

 reached, and was well worth the long journey. I saw a very 

 fine hunt from Bradwell Grove, which, if my memory is 

 correct, ended near Wychwood Forest. I have also a recol- 

 lection of a queer drive home to Oxford a few days before 

 Christmas of 1872. Hounds had met somewhere in the Whit- 

 ney district, and I drove to the meet with a friend, our 

 horses being brought from Woodstock. The groom took the 

 trap on to Whitney to await our arrival after hunting, and 

 I do not think there was any particular run of note, but I 

 do remember that it was bitterly cold, with heavy showers 

 of sleety snow during the day. We were, however, very 

 busy during the afternoon, and I stayed until hounds went 

 home, could not find my friend, and trotted off to Whitney, 

 arriving wet to the skin after dark. I then found that my 

 friend had returned hours before, and had gone home by 

 train, and so I started alone, behind two very free-going 

 horses, who had been standing five or six hours in the stable 

 and were terribly keen to get home. It was now freezing 

 hard and the road wag quickly becoming a- sheet of ioe. It 

 was very dark also, and it was Saturday night, which at 

 that time meant market day at Oxford. My gloves were 

 so wet that the reins slipped through my fingers, and how 

 I accomplished my journey without an accident I have never 



