BANKS AND DITCHES 173 



lots of room, and we had some capital gallops in that part 

 of the world. When there had been plenty of rain these 

 pale ploughs and the high beech-woods carried a capital 

 scent, and the configuration of the country wanted a galloping 

 horse ; indeed a better bred one than Berkshire. 



The best thing 1 remember was fifty minutes from Chal- 

 font Park with an outlying deer, named Bramshill. We 

 found him in a large patch of broom, just above Captain 

 Penton's house, where he had been treated for two or three 

 weeks as an honoured guest. Harvey drew up to him 

 very quietly and slowly, and the hounds had owned a line for 

 three hundred yards before the deer jumped up. This 

 was a very pretty find ; the deer jumped with such gay 

 bounds through the broom. I u'as riding a mare called 

 Milkmaid, not up to my weight, but she was all but clean- 

 bred and fast, and carried me well. I don't think I ever 

 remember going for so long at top speed. Comparatively few 

 people really lived through it or saw it. As there was 

 nothing to jump all the way, there is no harm in saying so ; 

 it was more like a flat race. Bramshill took to the reser- 

 voir at Chalfont St. Giles, and we had to leave him there. 

 This deer w^as a great water lover. We had taken him in a 

 pond at Elvetham the first day he was ever hunted. The 

 following year I took him down to the Vine, where we 

 hunted one day by invitation, thinking we were safe in that 

 dry and waterless country, bat he found his way straight 

 to the only ornamental piece of water for miles, Ewhurst 

 Park, and he again refused to come out. 



There were several good riders who used to come out on 

 the Bucks side of the river, most notably Mr. Drake, the 

 rector of Amersham, who joined us once or twice. Except for 

 the Rev. Mr. Fowle, whom George III., on a public occasion, 

 declared to be one of the best cavalry officers (Mr. Fowle having 

 at the time of the French AVars raised a corps of Berkshire 



