THE HARROW COUNTRY 147 



import to attend to. ^^'e are in the enemy's camp ; the 

 country far and wide is up in arms against us. No man will 

 tell us the way to the nearest road ; insidious clods only 

 pretend to open gates, that they may get a grab at our reins 

 as we pass through ; and others, infuriated, flourish pitchforks 

 in gaps and accost us in terms " peu flatteurs." We bestir 

 ourselves like men, to extricate ourselves from the unhand- 

 some fix, and ride as we never rode before or intend to ride 

 again. Some get falls, and are led away into captivity by 

 the lords of the soil ; but the survivors, of whom I have the 

 fortune to be one, after escapes of a perfectly Afghan charac- 

 ter, manage to gain the high road from Uxbridge to London, 

 when they hail the seventh milestone with joy, not, I trust, 

 unmixed with gratitude.' ^ 



This little instantaneous photograph may also be interest- 

 ing, even at this distance of time, as signalling the ' lucida 

 sidera ' of those days : ' King sticks to them ; about five or 

 six other men do likewise. On the left, Dicky Vyse, Beau- 

 champ Proctor, and Billy Baillie of the Blues lie well along- 

 side the leading hounds. Stout Makepeace follows gallantly 

 in their wake, as well as his weight will permit. On the 

 right, Davis glides smoothly along, whilst Jem Mason and 

 Allan Macdonough are racing with one another, looking out 

 eagerly for the big places to jump.' 



During Lord Cork's short tenure of office in 1866 — he 

 was only in a month or two — hints were freely given him 

 that the difficulties were not insuperable, and that if the 

 tenant farmers were properly approached their objections could 

 be got over. This was actually effected by Lord Colville's 

 tact and urbanity, the best of all sesames for locked gates. 

 This is what Lord Colville writes to me about it himself : 

 ' I cannot tell you under what circumstances the Queen's 

 Hounds were banished from the Harrow country. But one 



' Wild Sports of Middlesex. 



L 2 



