SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



where hounds were stopped after running 

 about twenty-five miles ; and secondly, a run 

 of about twenty miles to Kettering. 



Lord Chesterfield gave up the hounds in 

 1840, and Mr. Tom Smith, better known as 

 'Gentleman Smith,' came to the rescue after 

 the mastership had been vacant for some time. 

 He engaged Goddard as huntsman. 



The late Sir Henry Dryden, who occa- 

 sionally hunted with the Pytchley, records his 

 experience in the following characteristic 

 style: 'On Wednesday, 25 November, 1840, 

 the Pytchley met at Stow Heath. This 

 was their first appearance there under Mr. 

 Smith. They are under every disadvantage, 

 having had no cub hunting — all the best 

 hounds gone to Lord Ducie — nine horses ill 

 of distemper and hounds in no condition. 

 Goddard, first whip last season, is hufltsman. 

 Drew Stowe Wood and Everdon Stubbs 

 badly and blank. Snorscomb Spinneys, Fawsley 

 Spinneys blank. Then off to Badley Wood 

 and found directly; there were soon about five 

 foxes going and hounds in all parts. They 

 ran one out to Fawsley and back. . . . The 

 foxes wouldn't break well, and the hounds 

 didn't mind their huntsman.' 



In Sir Henry's opinion ' the Pytchley bitches 

 were rather smaller than the duke's, but very 

 handsome in general.' In speaking of the 

 country round the Hemploe he says that there 

 was a good deal of plough, and that it was 

 lighter fenced than his district, but he con- 

 sidered it a very fine country. 



Sir Francis Holyoake Goodricke was elected 

 master in 1842. He was a fine horseman, 

 but had not the art of making himself popular. 

 Then, as now, hounds hunted on the Monday, 

 Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday in each 

 week; and during the season from 31 October, 

 1842, to I April, 1843, the hounds were 

 out 100 times. Sir Francis kept the hounds 

 for two seasons, and in I 844 they were taken 

 for the second time by Mr. George Payne. 



On 31 March, 1846, a very compli- 

 mentary offering was made to Mr. Payne at 

 the George Hotel, Northampton. Between 

 three and four hundred of the nobility, gentry, 

 farmers and others, all more or less connected 

 with the Pytchley Hunt, assembled at dinner, 

 to request Mr. Payne's acceptance of a mag- 

 nificent silver epergne, with a figure of himself 

 standing under a tree holding his dead fox over 

 his head, and inscribed with an address. 



The late Lord Henley kept a hunting 

 journal, from which Lady Henley has kindly 

 allowed the writer to select the best runs. 

 On 7 November, 1846, hounds met at 

 Kelmarsh, and had a very fast 20 minutes' 

 run from there. They found their second fox 



at Waterloo Covert, and ran to Marston Wood 

 at best pace in 40 minutes ; and from there 

 to Brampton Woods at a tremendous pace, 

 but did not kill. ' None of the horses that 

 were near the hounds from Waterloo to 

 Marston saw the run from Marston to Bramp- 

 ton Wood.' 



Mr. Payne had Charles Payne, ' the inimi- 

 table,' as his first whip and kennel huntsman 

 during his second tenure of the mastership ; 

 he carried the horn himself. 



Mr. Payne resigned in 1848, and Lord 

 Alford took the hounds, promoting Charles 

 Payne to be huntsman. Payne continued to 

 carry the horn until 1866, serving also under 

 the Hon. Frederick Villiers, Lord Hopetoun, 

 Lord Spencer, and Colonel, then Captain, 

 Anstruther Thomson. 



Lord Alford hunted the country with great 

 spirit, liberality, and success; he kept the 

 hounds on a whole season after declining 

 health prevented him from participating in 

 the sport. He commenced with a large draft 

 from the duke of Rutland's kennels. Pillager 

 was one of the best stud hounds at this time; 

 he ran for six seasons, and never had a whip 

 on him, except to put him from the feeding 

 trough. One of the best of his breed. Pliant, 

 especially distinguished herself during a run 

 of 35 minutes from Lord Spencer's covert 

 to Sulby Reservoir. The fox after running 

 by the side of the water plunged in midway ; 

 Pliant at once followed, while the other 

 hounds were casting right and left, and she 

 got half a mile past Sulby Hall before the 

 body of the pack could get up to her. 



When Lord Alford resigned the hounds in 



185 1, the Hon. Frederick Villiers, of Sulby, 

 became master, but only for one season. 



Lord Hopetoun followed Mr. Villiers in 



1852, and in accordance with the usual 

 custom of masters of the Pytchley he lived 

 at Pitsford Hall. Affairs were conducted 

 lavishly at the kennels, some seventy-five 

 couples of hounds, and thirty-six horses being 

 kept ; and the hounds hunted five days a 

 week — Tuesday being generally a forest meet. 

 Lord Hopetoun, possessing an ample fortune, 

 declined a subscription and kept the hounds 

 entirely at his own cost. He showed some 

 excellent sport. 



' The Druid ' mentions an extraordinary 

 hunt which took place early in August, 1853, 

 near Geddington Chase. Hounds found a 

 fox at a quarter-past five o'clock in the morn- 

 ing and hunted him for 3 hours. They 

 then changed on to ' a shabby little vixen who 

 slipped like a witch through the briars and 

 sedge ; and when she had been headed three 

 times fairly defied the dog pack to make her 



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