248 Tally ho, 



of coacliing pictures gathered together by Mr. Darby, 

 jun., whicli recall past times vividly to mind, I am 

 carried back by the countless anecdotes I hear to the 

 days of my boyhood, and I fancy I am again sallying 

 forth from the old house at " Havering at ye Bower,^^ 

 to hunt the red deer with Rounding through Hainault 

 and Epping Forests, or going with " Plummy Pratt '^ 

 to a merry mill at Navestock-heath, to see Jack 

 Scroggins or some such worthy fight " Gipsy Cooper ^^ 

 for £100 a side — prize-fighting in those days being 

 allowable, and a fashionable amusement as well. 



" Who was that,^' I asked, " who went to Melton 

 on one occasion in order to cut down ^ Little Gil- 

 mour ? ' '' 



" Oh ! " said Mr. Darby, " you mean the West of 

 England man, who when he rode in Gloucestershire 

 was ' Miles ' before, but when he went into Leicester- 

 shire was ^ Miles '' behind. Ah ! ^^ said he, when 

 I was speaking of a mutual acquaintance who had 

 killed himself by hard drinking, " I have often seen 

 brandy tried, but I never knew it beaten.''^ 



And thus we ran through the list of people once 

 celebrated in the sporting world ; and it must have 

 been an insignificant personage indeed whose pedigree 

 and performances were not retained in his singularly 

 retentive and correct memory. 



Walking round the town, I noticed the new middle- 

 class schools now in the course of erection. Some 

 anxiety is felt as to the constitution of this portion of 

 the altered scheme for distributing the funds of the 

 founder of the schools, a reform which does not find 

 universal approval, it is quite clear, as I learnt when 

 conversing with some of the old inhabitants. I left 



