Lord Hopetoun s Mastership, 159 



no time have there been more good hunters in the Brix- 

 worth stables than during his Mastership. 



Commenciug apparently without any nerve or even 

 desire for a forward place in a run^ he gradually trained 

 on into being an exceedingly hard man, and pretty sure to 

 be found amongst the first flight. For the first season 

 or two, his chief delight seemed to be to derive laughing- 

 material out of the falls and any ludicrous incident he 

 chanced to witness during the day ; any misadventure 

 a.t water being a source of especial and unlimited delight. 

 Naturally clever, and with a keen eye for the ridiculous, 

 nothing escaped his observation or remark. Seeing a 

 friend arrive at the Meet one day, riding a horse whose 

 tail was nearly hairless and stuck almost straight up, he 

 addressed him with: ^^Why, Yernon, what luck you 

 were in to pick up such a horse as that ; his tail will 

 serve as a capital hat-peg when you don't want to hunt 

 him." From that day to the last hour of his sojourn in 

 Northamptonshire, the owner of the animal with the 

 peculiar extremity was known as ^' Hat-peg Yernon," 

 and is still spoken of as such when alluded to by any of 

 the older members of the Hunt. 



Pitsford Hall, as usual, was hired by the noble lord as 

 his residence ; thus becoming for the fifth time since 

 1821 the hunting abode of the Master of the '^ P.H." 



That Lord Hopetoun took the rough with the smooth, 

 and did not shirk the somewhat weary days in the 

 Woodlands, is shown in the pages of " Silk and Scarlet/^ 

 where we find that he and his friend Captain Newland 

 remained with the hounds on one occasion from 5.15 

 a.m. to 3 p.m. It seems that the fox was found in a 

 plantation close to the road between Kettering and Stam- 



