268 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. 1894 



ride at the second, and no one else rode at them. Anyone 

 else who saw the place would consider this an extraordinary 

 feat of horsemanship. — C. M. 



From Lord Willoughby de Broke 's diary : 



The hounds killed 102 foxes. Fifty brace of foxes have not been killed in 

 Warwickshire since my father's time, when Jones was huntsman. 



During the season of 1893-1894, old hay was extremely 

 dear, and reached the price of 9/. a ton. 



We read in the old Sporting Magazine, Vol. 15, page 

 86, that in the autumn of 1799-1800 forage and oats were 

 so dear that several gentlemen resolved not to keep horses. 



From the Field, July 14th : 



The Peterborough Foxhound Show. — That the seventeenth anni- 

 versary of the above should be celebrated under the presidency of Mr. Thomas 

 Parriugton (the father of foxhound competitions in our generation), was a 

 matter of no little congratulation and appreciation. If this great central 

 shoAv at Peterborough has done nothing else, it may at least be claimed for it 

 that it has raised the standard and widened the area of presentable foxhounds, 

 so that, go where you will in England, you will nowhere in these days come 

 across scratch packs, such as twenty years ago were so common at any 

 di.stauce from the fashionable centres. More than this, there are now a score, 

 or even two score, of first-class kennels of foxhounds in the country, to the 

 half-dozen that then constituted the sole repositories of shapeliness and of 

 fashionable breeding. They do not all exhibit — more is the pity. But taste 

 for, and knowledge of, hound breeding is now widely diffused ; and Peter- 

 borough is year by year a more popular resort. Besides Masters of Hounds, 

 and hunt servants, who at first made up the bulk of the spectators, more 

 lumting men — and even hiinting women — congregate at the ring side at 

 Peterborough than the committee can now give room to, or, under present 

 accommodation, protect from the weather. There was little to complain of 

 on Wednesday ; for the sun did not shine hotly, nor did the rain penetrate in 

 full volume — more than once. Then it showed us, in its treatment of fore- 

 most and fairest, what it could have done had it wished. But for one point 

 of improvement we have sincerely to thank the management. They have 

 found room elsewhere for the noisy fox terriers. Or stay, had they invited 

 them at all ? We see no class or entries in the catalogue, and we heard 

 none of the yapping we have found so distracting on previous occasions. 



Record of the competition in the various classes is in a measure limited by 

 the fact that the Warwickshire almost swept the board. Why should they 

 not ? Have they not done so before P And Avill they not do so again, till 

 Lord Willoughby de Broke's secret of fusing quality and power in one 

 harmonious whole sliall have eked out for the benefit of others ? (At present 

 it deserves the exordium that Mr. Tru(>fit used to apply to some special elixir 

 in the words " the insurmountal)le autagcmism hitherto supposed to exist 

 between the two essential ingredients, has at length been successfully 

 overcome, &c.") 



