THE MASTERS OF BADMINTON 



is given by Nimrod in his Hunting Reminiscences. 

 ** The Oxfordshire country . . . embraces a 

 large tract of hill and vale. It joins the Bicester, 

 the Warwickshire, Colonel Berkeley's, Lord Ducie's, 

 Mr. Horlock's, and Sir John Cope's ; but does not 

 transgress the boundary of the county, though it 

 verges on the borders of several. Indeed, the 

 four-shire stone — a stone standing in four several 

 counties — is near to one of the favourite covers of 

 the hunt. In better times the towns of Chipping 

 Norton and Woodstock, as well as the inn at 

 Chapel House, contained parties of gentlemen in 

 attendance on the Duke's hounds ; but those days 

 are gone by. A few old stagers, however, are still 

 occasionally to be found at the village of Charlbury, 

 and now and then a visitor or two to the other 

 places. 



" For the conspicuous riders of this part of 

 Oxfordshire, we must look to some of the old 

 ones, who have done the trick in better countries. 



" Mr. Evans, of Dean, once a Leicestershire man 

 also, and Mr. Webb, of Kiddington, Mr. Lewes, 

 and Mr. Thornhill, ranked high ; nor must Mr. 

 Holloway, of Charlbury, be passed over. He was 

 a thorough sportsman, and — like his horses in chase 

 — would go till nature cried ' Enough.' " 



The Heythrop is not a good scenting country as 

 a whole, though there are times when hounds can 

 fly over it. On December 2, 1827, there was a 

 run from a gorse of some two acres called Swell 



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