MR. FOWLER'S REMINISCENCES OF AYLESBURY. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPECTATOR."] Sin,—As the story Mr. Fowler tells (in his "Echoes of Old County Life ") of Lord Southampton and Mr. Mowbray Morris has found its way into many reviews besides your own (in the Spectator of June 17th), perhaps those who think it amusing may care to hear it properly told. In its present form it is only a stupid and pointless impertinence.
When Mr. Morris first hunted in the Vale of Aylesbury (where, I may observe, his acquaintance with Mr. Poole, the tailor, was, pace Mr. Fowler the innkeeper, confined to buying clothes from him), being a light weight and well mounted, he generally managed to see what the hounds were doing. On one occasion he was considered by Lord South- hampton (a masterful man in the field, and, as many are aware, one of the prototypes of Lord Scamperdale) to have been responsible for an untoward cheek. The hounds had been overridden, said his lordship (who was perfectly aware of Mr. Morris's connection with the Times), by that " d—d leading article." The name stuck, and is doubtless still remembered by many who can recall the sport in the Vale five-and-forty years ago. Not long afterwards Mr. Morris was following Lord Southampton over a fence more closely than prudence or etiquette permitted. On landing, his lordship turned in his saddle and, in a burst of Homeric wrath, stigmatised the offender as a " d—d following article."—I am, Sir, &c., AN OLD HUNTER.
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