396 REMINISCENCES OF 



"WiLCOT Manor, Marlborough, 

 " lyth March, 1869. 



" My Dear Thomson, — 



" A friend of mine, a member of the Ted- 

 worth Hunt, begged me to ask you whether you 

 wished to have another country on leaving the 

 Pytchley. This is quite private, as I have no 

 authority to move in the matter. These hounds 

 hunt four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 

 and Saturday. The subscription is about ^1,600 a 

 year. Lord Ailesbury and Sir Edmund Antrobus 

 being the chief subscribers and supporters of the 

 hunt. The country is about half down and half 

 enclosed, with two very large coverts of nearly 2,000 

 acres each ; the fences are very small indeed, and 

 scarcely deserve the name. 



" Hoping that you are quite well and have had 

 a good season, with kind remembrance to Mrs. 

 Anstruther Thomson, 



" I remain, 



" Yours very truly, 



" Algernon St. Maur." 



All these offers I declined. 



Towards the end of the season, April, 1869, a 

 deputation of farmers, headed by that grand old 

 sportsman, Matthew Oldacre of Clipstone, called on 

 me at the cottage at Brixworth with the following 

 address : — 



'* We, the undersigned farmers, graziers and 

 occupiers of land in the Pytchley country, 



