304 TJie Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



tused about tlie head, had one of his ankles badly sprained. 

 A ten-mile ride home in clothes thoroughly soaked did 

 not serve to mend matters ; and the fear arose, whether 

 or not the so lately-recovered back might not have sus- 

 tained fresh injury. Fortunately this did not prove to 

 be the case ; but it was six weeks before he was again 

 seen in the hunting-field. 



A curious fact attending this incident was that the 

 collision was so sudden and unlocked for, that it was not 

 until Mr. Nethercote had lifted his co-sufi'erer from 

 beneath the water, that he was aware that it was his 

 own son-in-law who was the cause of the misadventure. 



Within a few yards to the left, the Viceroy of Ireland 

 — Lord Spencer — was going through a single-handed 

 aquatic performance, his horse having stopped to look, 

 and then '^ plumped '^ ignominiously into the water ! 



Amongst the Christmas school- boys that go to swell a 

 Pj'^tchley field at that ^^ halcyon^' time for English lads, 

 another Drury Wake may now be seen — keen as his 

 father— full of ride for a youngster ; and in every respect 

 a " true chip of the old block." 



MR. NETHERCOTE. 



On the opposite side of the picture of the '^ Crick '^ 

 Meet, next to Mr. Arkwright's, may be seen the figure of 

 !Mr. Nethercote of Moulton Grange, father of the writer 

 of this volume, and the last surviving member of the old 

 Pytchley Club. Of all those represented by tbe skilful 

 brush of the painter, with him alone rested the recollec- 

 tions of the palmy days of the '^ P.H./'' when the old 



