54 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



and with them he chatted pleasantly for half an 

 hour before hounds threw off. These special days 

 so often turn out badly for sport, which is frequently 

 marred by the crowd, and on this occasion the sun 

 was hot, scent was a vanishing quantity, foxes ran 

 short, and the crowd was everywhere. The find 

 was in Freeby Wood ; hounds then rattled their fox 

 by Brentingby, crossed the Melton brook, and 

 turned into a nice country, a line for Goadby 

 village, where fresh foxes jumping up spoilt all 

 chance of an orthodox finish. By the afternoon 

 the day clouded down, and a good gallop resulted 

 from Coston covert, hounds racing hard for 

 Woodwell Head, bowling their fox over in the 

 open by Edmonthorpe, and Gillard had the honour 

 of presenting the brush to the royal stranger. 

 The horse ridden by the Prince was a superb 

 chestnut, and carried him right up to hounds over 

 a stiff line of country, in spite of a large thrusting 

 crowd, and the difficulties caused by one or two 

 self-constituted pilots. At one fence a farmer 

 took a fall just in front of the Prince, who, unable 

 to check his horse, cleared the prostrate form, but 

 he immediately pulled up, and riding back to the 

 fallen horseman expressed his regret. To this day 

 the incident is remembered and appreciated by 

 sportsmen who love fair play, for selfish indiffer- 

 ence is too often, we fear, characteristic of a hard- 

 riding Leicestershire field, whom Whyte Melville 

 described as "fierce as hawks, jealous as women." 

 On the following day the Prince met hounds and 

 a large field at Newton Bar to sample the Lincoln- 



