138 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. [1839 



he united the kindest heart, and we well recollect his many 

 actions of thoughtful generosity in the field and on other 

 occasions. 



We said just now that at the time when the Warwick- 

 shii*e hounds were managed by a committee (always an 

 unsatisfactory arrangement), and their fortunes were at 

 a low ebb, for tliey were hunting only two days a week, 

 and perhaps the sport, though we have scarcely any 

 record of it, was not quite up to the mark, Mr. Robert 

 John Barnard came forward, and was chosen as sole master. 

 This seems to have been the turning point in the fortunes 

 of the Hunt, and although the pack have not always main- 

 tained since the same high level of sport, yet since that 

 date there has been always an onward flow; and, in spite of 

 the ebbs and flows, the high tide of sport inaugurated by 

 Mr. Barnard and his keen and able huntsman has 

 never since entirely failed.' It is an old and true adage, 

 that the more foxes you kill the more you have, and the 

 reason is not far to seek. If a man keeps foxes, he likes 

 to have them hunted, he likes to have them killed ; and 

 Mr. Barnard and Ned Stevens were certainl}^ killers — the 

 former represented perhaps the old, or rather transition 

 style, the latter was a new man in every particular and 

 entire essence. Many a good judge has held that, with 

 the exception of a few men like the late Charles Payne, 

 the late Frank Beers, the late Wm. Groodall, and Tom 

 Firr, no huntsman ever got away quicker on the back 

 of his fox, and no one hunted him with more dash and 

 determination. Mr. Barnard was perhaps slower, but 

 he was no less sure, and his great popularity in the 

 county, arising from his own jDersonal character and 

 unaffected good nature and homeliness, added much to 

 his success. A more popular master and a keener 

 huntsman never joined hands in the preservation and 

 destruction of foxes till the present Lord Willoughby 

 took up the double role in his own person. Mr. Barnard 

 was bred a sportsman. Born at Lighthorne Rectory on 

 Oct. 7th, 1809, his father. Prebendary Barnard, and his 



