The King King Hunting Diaries

March 3rd.  Captain Cotton at Oakley Court Farm.  Went into St. Leonard’s Forest to look for 2 of their deer wh. had escaped the day before.  Found something, possibly a fox but did nothing.  Keeping the windward side of the wood I viewed away the 2 deer with 4 couple of hounds close at them.  Cd. make no one hear, so scuttled off with them to the Thames where Mr Allen & others arrived.  The deer crossed & separated.  Went over Maidenhead bridge & met one deer & certain of the hounds, who promptly crossed back again.  O-d them & home seeing a race on my way.

Rode  Strategy

March 6th.  The Queen’s at Binfield Standard.  Uncarted close by & ran well & straight by Easthampstead, straight thro’ the Forest & out leaving Jolly Farmers just on the right, thence over miles of heather & ---- a horribly ----ped country, past a lunatic asylum, & by a canal, finally taking in a pond at the Hermitage, close to the Woking Crematorium!  One hour & fifteen minutes.  The deer had a share of being drowned by the hounds, but was taken “quitte pour la peur”, & one ear a bit bitten!

Rode  Peregrine

March 7th.  The OBH (West) at the Feathers Taplow.  Found in a wood overhanging the Thames:  a vixen wh. got to ground.  Found again in Crossmore.  Hounds slipped the field & got over to Burnham Beeches, where they made a short turn in the wood & let us in again.  Then they went away down wind for some 20 minutes at top pace over the very deepest of arable & with a considerable lead of the haremen who cd. nt. Get thro’ the wood where they did.  The 1^st check on the west side of Holtspur Heath was the last.  Left them about to draw a wood of Gilbey’s, a “certain find”.

Rode  Skene Dhu

March 9th.  Mr Garth at the C-----.  Got on to a roe deer Silwell way & ran him about Smith’s Lawn.  Got the hounds together with difficulty, & found a fox in St Leonard’s Forest or thereby.  The hounds turned down wind into the pingle & slipped their field.  As it began to rain I didn’t persevere.

Rode  Strategy

March 10th.  The Queen’s at Ascot.  Uncarted at Red Lodge.  Ran up wind by (nearly) the Jolly Farmers, then by the Staff College over the Blackwater & I left them by Gately, 15 miles from home & the deer gone half an hour.

Rode  Peregrine

March 12th.  Captain Cotton at Holtspur Heath.  Uncarted close by, a very bad stag who was beat in 15 minutes.  Gave him every chance & took him after some 40 minutes.  Having no 2^nd deer in the van, drew for a hare.  Found & ran into Hall Barn home coverts, where the hares outnumbered the hounds.  Got them away with difficulty & home.  A pity as scent was good with both deer & hare.

Rode  Skene Dhu

March 13th.  The Queen’s at Hawthorn Hill 2 pm, after pt. to pt. races.  Uncarted “Bartlett”, ran hard nearly to Bracknell then leaving Binfield on the right ran up to the deer just short of Wokingham & stopped hounds.  Turned right handed again Easthampstead on the right into the forest, where near Sandhurst I left them.  Wind E.

Rode  Strategy

March 17th.  The Queen’s at Bagshot Cricketers.  Came back towards the kennels, uncarted in the forest, & ran a ring or so towards the paddocks, the deer finally jumping into them over a 10 foot fence.  Let another stag out of the paddocks.  Ran with a remarkably bad scent rings round Swinley Forest, then over the railway Bracknell way, finally up the road towards Ascot Heath, near where I took him with old Cheerful alone at his ---- & so home.  A poor day.

Rode  Peregrine

March 19th.  The South Bucks at Hillfield Burgh something.  Lawn meet.  Drew some small spinnies blank.  Found in Bennet’s Hill, ran a certain distance with a poor scent, to a wood where the fox was headed, turned back & lost.  Found again in Upton Wood, ran about a fir tree jungle & accounted for him by losing him.  Hounds coarse looking & none too steady.  ------ I believe the very worst they have.  Left them at 4 pm, still drawing.  Moved certainly 4 foxes.

Rode  Peregrine

March 20th.  The Queen’s at Wellington College.  Uncarted at Broadmoor, & ran a bad hind by Sandhurst along the road to Camberly & took there.  Back to the cart, & the other deer took them Sandhurst way again, but without me!

Rode  Skene Dhu

March 21st.  The OBH West at Holtspur Heath.  Found at once close to the meet.  Hounds ran beating the horses as the ground was up to the withers nearly to Wickham, then thro’ Penn Wood & killed him without a word from the huntsman.  50 minutes.  Country quite unrideable & fearful jungles.  Found again in Hodgemoor, & ran to Penn Wood again, but I left them.  Coundn’t trot over the fields.

Rode  Sanctity

March 23rd.  Mr Garth at Rickett’s Green.  Found at once close to the meet, a brace.  Presently got on to the vixen & lost, after a lot of slow covert work.  Found again in Ashley Hill, disturbing an outlying deer on the way, ran thro’ Bru---ey Hill to ground some 6 fields away & up wind.  Drew more jungle blank, & found again in Bowsey Hill where I left them.  1st whip acting huntsman & doing it well.

Rode  Peregrine

March 24th.  The Queen’s at Sunningdale Station.  Uncarted on Chobham Common.  Ran at first racing, then turned to the east, & hounds seem to have beat horses.  Got up to them on the east side of Chobham Common, in some woods.  Then the deer soiled, came away & ran the woods to the water again.  The day finished from pond to pond, & I left them with the stag in the original one.

Rode  Skene Dhu

“Come down I say & on ugly beast”

March 27th.  Capt. Cotton at Gerrard’s X.   Uncarted on the hill facing Bulstrode Park.  Ran a little ring into it & not over Gerrard’s X Common, & dodged about there for the rest of the time.  They took the stag & talked of carting him away & turning him out in another neighbourhood, but ---- it.

Rode  Sanctity

March 28th.  The Windsor Drag at Easthampstead Park.  Started at Lark’s Farm & ran a sort of ---.  Racing pace ---tle needed & sudden death all the way!  Skirted the 1^st bit of boggy meadows & rotten b----s.

Rode  Peregrine

March 30th.  Mr Garth at the Squirrel, Windfield. Found in St Leonards’ Forest about a long time, then got away over Col. Van de Wyle’s – turned left handed over the road and then a ring back by Charity Gorse and on to the forest again and lost where we might have been catching him. Found again in Mount Skipper (?) and ran up wind to a stopped section then back to the Forest whence I left them at 3pm. Met at 11.

Rode  Skene Dhu

March 31st.  The Queen’s at Wellington College Hotel. Had a long trot  to Sandhurst and roused there another. Ran into the forest round about the College where I believe we clashed with the Ripley and Knaphill, tho’ I didn’t see it, then away for Y- and back to the Blackcoater, but I never made a right turn all day, and left them in disgust with a stag of some one’s under my nose, one whip, one 2 ! horseman of the Queens’ and no hounds

Rode  Sanctity