Mr. Edmund Byron 81 



Byron succeeded to the Mastership in 1877. . . . Where 

 are those tears ? 



1883. 8 February. — A famous run. Found a second fox 

 at 3.15 in Westerham Wood, and he went up the hill to 

 Tatsfield Park Wood on to Green Hill Shaws,Churchwood, 

 Marden Park, and over the Godstone Road to the quarries, 

 thence up the hill to Old Park and down to the Ruffits, 

 where, in a dense fog and darkness, Mr. Byron managed 

 to stop the hounds, or rather most of them, and took 

 them back to the kennels. He was the only horseman 

 left with them. Sam Hills and the first whip were the 

 only other two who reached the Godstone Road. But 

 Hills was riding a horse that he had on trial, and it was 

 not in such good condition as one of the regular Hunt 

 horses. The fact transpired afterwards that two or three 

 couples of hounds had gone on to Bletchingley with the 

 fox, and, finding their way into an open door of a build- 

 ing where a prayer-meeting was going on, they were 

 ignominiously expelled. They returned to the kennels 

 all right. There was not a check in this run, and the 

 ground was very heavy. When Mr. Byron got back to 

 the kennels he found Hills anxiously wondering what had 

 happened to the hounds ; he said that it was the first 

 time in his life he had ever come home without the hounds, 

 and probably it was the last. The fault was not his, how- 

 ever, seeing that his horse was absolutely done up. 



1886. 16 January. — Had a good day. Found a fox 

 in Farley Park ; he went through Henley Wood and 

 Slynes Oaks, on to Church Wood and Stubb's Copse, to 



M 



