1791] ME. JOHN CORBET. 15 



of great size, and lie built a number of kennels. He was 

 well known as a wit, and he told a friend, wlio had been 

 making remarks upon the big heads of his hounds, that they 

 were of such a weight that, having got their noses well down 

 to the ground, it was not easy for them to get them up again ! 

 We need not further notice John Warde, because his career 

 has been written in other hunting books, and " Castor," to 

 whom we are indebted for various extracts, has a detailed 

 account of him in his " Century of Foxhunting." 



The Warwickshire Hunt may be said to have com- 

 menced when Mr. J. Warde left the country, and the even 

 more celebrated Mr. John Corbet, of Sundorne Castle, 

 Shropshire, took the management of it. Under him it 

 became a first-rate hunting country.* He was an ideal 

 master of hounds, a kind and liberal landlord, and a 

 perfect gentleman, and for such information as we are able 

 to obtain of his career we are indebted to " Scrutator" and 

 " Ximrod."t He came to Warwickshire in 1791, and lived 

 at Clopton, near Stratford-on-Avon, and hunted the entire 

 county at his own expense,! and he continued to do so for 

 a longer period than any man before him in any hunting 

 country. He had seventy couples of hounds, and he dined 

 with the members of the club at the White Lion, Strat- 

 ford, once a fortnight. Mr. W. Barke, the owner of the 

 White Lion, was a welter weight, and a noted rider. On 

 one occasion he was asked the price by Mr. Zouche, of 

 ]\Iilcote, of a very strong, active, shooting pony belonging 

 to him. He rejDlied, " Fifty guineas." " Can he jump ? " 



* From the Sporting Magazine, December, 1795 : " Stratford, December 3, 1795. 

 Corbet's Hounds had a good run from Wolford Heath (sic), near Shipston. Mr. J. 

 Corbet, the Rev. J. Martin, Mr. S. Littleton, Mr. Pigott, and Mr. Hill were up at the 

 death." 



t " Nimrod," after leaving Hinkley Hall, in Leicestershire, removed to Bilton 

 Hall, in Warwickshire, which had been the residence of Addison. 



X The following letter appeared in the Leamington Courier in March, 1884 : " Sir, — 

 Will you allow me to correct the statement made in your article on the Warwickshire 

 hounds that Mr. Corbet liunted them entirely at his own expense. My gx-andfather, 

 •Sir Andrew Corbet, shared the expenses equally with his kinsman, John Corbet — both 

 Shropshire men. My father used to lament — very improperly, I suppose, but from a 

 younger son's point of view — that the WOOl, a year thus spent did not come his way 

 instead of it ' going to the dogs.' — Yours truly, Charlotte M. Corbet, 2, Newbold- 

 terrace, Leamington." 



