KENNELS AND STABLES 



207 



people would not agree with me as to the benefit of tlie out- 

 door hfe, and the change from a box, where a horse can 

 neither see nor even hear his companions, to a sort of club life. 

 The Prince of Wales summers his hunters at Cumber- 

 land Lodge, and in the days when H.E.H. kept harriers 

 (which he afterwards gave to the farmers of the Queen's 

 country) the harriers were kept there. In the good time 

 when H.E.H. hunted frequently with the Queen's Hounds, 

 that is, in from about 1864 into the beginning of the seventies, 

 he saw some excellent runs and owned some capital horses. 

 Lord Colville has already told us of one great run. I 

 believe only three really saw the end of that one — Colonel, 

 now Sir Nigel, Kingscote, King the huntsman, and Mr. 

 Sowter, the well-known Haymarket saddler ; but the Prince, 

 Sir Nigel tells me, went at the top of the hunt as far as 

 Harrow, when with the majority of the field he made a bad 

 turn in the lanes. On this occasion the horses were sent 

 home by train to AVindsor, and the Prince's horse, a very 

 favourite mare named Firefly, caught cold and died within 

 a day or two. Another run in which H.E.H. rode ' hard and 

 well ' — terms which are not always synonymous — and to the 

 end, was from Taplow to St. Albans. Sir Nigel instances 

 another, when the deer was taken near Tring — which must 

 have been a long point — where they had mutton-chops and 

 poached eggs so well served that they merited and received 

 very special attention and commendation from the Prince. 

 Some of his best horses were Firefly, Paddy, Thornton, 

 Eural Dean, Q.C., Lockington, and Charlie, and they were all 

 ridden regularly with the staghounds. Though all were well- 

 bred high-couraged horses, Thornton, Firefly, and Paddy 

 were perhaps the special favourites. Q.C. was a grey ; 

 the Prince was mounted on him by the Duke of Beaufort 

 when he was staying at Badminton, and liked him so 

 much that he persuaded the Duke to sell him. ' Paddy,' Sir 



