204 THE WAEWICKSHIEE HTJNT. [1890 



In 1824 the Eev. Mr. Knott bought a mare by 

 Grimaldi — Miss Coverton, three years old, which he rode 

 hunting. She won the Leamington Cup in 1829. In 

 1830 she won the Farmers' Plate, which was run in three 

 two-mile heats, at Warwick Eaces, and Mr. Knott has kept 

 the blood up ever since. He was riding one of her 

 descendants, a little mare (the dam of the brown mare we 

 so well remember, and which appears in the photo of 

 Ladbroke Grorse. She was by Erix, dam by the Cardinal), 

 and they ran from Hinton Gorse to Warden Hill. Frank 

 Beers jumped the gates, and Mr. Knott the fences, and 

 when Beers' horse, his favourite with the rat-tail, was beat, 

 he offered to go on and stop the earths. Beers changed 

 his horse, and in the second run, from Fawsley to Mantle 

 Heath, Mr. Knott, on his pony mare, galloped him down 

 again. 



He had a very celebrated strong black mare, on which 

 we remember him best, and a big black horse, bought by 

 Sir Charles Mordaunt ; but his best horse was Hardwick, 

 bought by Mr. Vebers, which was first favourite for the 

 Liverpool Grand National. He was in training, and broke 

 his leg four days before the race. 



Mr. Knott says that, though, alas ! there has not been 

 any profit in the old style of farming, but a dead loss for 

 many years, the only way he can make it pay is by the 

 sale of cart horses and riding horses, and that every year 

 he lives his love of foxhunting grows stronger and 

 stronger. Mr. Knott is a thorough man of business, and 

 the respect in which he is held in the sporting world was 

 shown by his being chosen to take the cliaii' at the compli- 

 mentary dinner to Lord Willoughby de Broke. He was 

 also the originator of the successful Kineton Horse Show, 

 of which his son, Mr. Edward Knott, who is a good 

 sportsman and hunts regularly with the Warwickshire, is 

 the hon. sec. He is, perhaps, best known as a judge of 

 hunters, having acted in that capacity for the " Eoyal " 

 and for most of the leading agricultural societies in 

 England, as well as at many local shows. 



