“1894 was a fairly good season. H. B. Creswell was Master, the whips being T. D. Pilkington, who was killed in the South African War, Maurice Atkinson-Clark at my Dame’s (Hale’s), who died during the same war, and E. R. Davson. We had some very good runners that year, amongst them being G. A. Hodgson, D. O. Dunlop, G. D. Baird and Harold Chapman. The last-mentioned was also at my Dame’s. We always ran together and were generally near the front. He was fourth and I fifth in the School Steeplechase that year. In 1895 I turned the tables on him, for I was third to his sixth. He had left by 1896 when I won it. There were two ‘bills’ that year, the first to Wooburn, the Gilbeys’ place; I did not go there, but I went to the other—about the end of February—Maiden Erleigh, the Hargreaves’ place near Reading. We had an excellent day, killed one hare and should have killed another, but it ‘disappeared’ near the station after a fast run. I fancy some loafer picked it up! Bear Hargreaves, as he was called when at Mitchell’s, rode that day (he had left Eton), and I remember holding on to one of his leathers when I was getting beat. We were nobly entertained at the house afterwards, and it was a first rate day altogether, one of the best I can remember. “In 1895 there was a meet near the beginning of the Half, and then not another till well on in February. It was the year of the long frost after ‘the floods.’ I rowed in Trial Eights that year, so I missed the hunting in the latter part of the Half. G. S. Hodgson was Master, and A. W. F. Baird, D. O. Dunlop and Jerry Ward the whips that year. Hodgson and Dunlop were magnificent runners, and were famous for running a dead heat in the Mile. “In 1896 Jerry Ward was Master. Poor fellow, he was killed in the late War. I was first whip, the others being Charlie Cavendish, killed at Diamond Hill in South Africa, and Timmy Robarts, of whom I have lost sight. I think we were very unlucky that season. So far as I can remember, we had a considerable number of days when there was little or no scent—owing to cold winds and rain. Jerry Ward made an excellent Master and he knew the country well. He and I had run for several seasons. He left hounds to themselves and let them work out their line, and did not continually lift them, as is so often done. We were all very keen, and I feel sure that with a little more luck we should have had a good season. As it was, I believe it was one of the worst on record. We were also very unlucky with fresh hares. I can remember fresh hares getting up in front of hounds on several occasions when we had our hunted hare done. [Illustration: A DISAPPOINTING FINISH.] “The holes in the Stoke Park palings were a terrible stumbling block in those days; hares continually used to baffle us by reaching them and ‘safety.’ I don’t know whether they bother you still.