320 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



like those of his predecessors, were not foxhounds entered 

 to deer, but old-fashioned staghounds. The servants were 

 dressed in Lincoln green. Everything was done with the 

 most reckless extravagance. Mr. Wellesley would scatter 

 sovereigns to countrymen in the hunting-field as readily as 

 other liberal sportsmen would give shillings or sixpences. 

 Such was his reckless prodigality that, having acquired by 

 his marriagfe, in 1812, a rent-roll in Essex alone, raised 

 under the influence of war prices to ^70,000 per annum, 

 he was, within ten years of that time, obliged to escape 

 down the Thames from his creditors in an open boat. His 

 wife died broken-hearted ; the custody of his children was 

 taken from him b)- the Court of Chancery ; Wanstead 

 House was pulled down ; and, though he had succeeded in 

 the meantime to the headship of his own family as Earl of 

 Mornington, he died a pensioner of his uncle, the great 

 Duke of Wellington. 



When the Wellesley hounds were sold, Tom Rounding, 

 who is said to have acted as Wellesley's huntsman, and 

 whose foxhunting experiences are alluded to in a previous 

 chapter, secured a few couple, and with these the hunting 

 of the wild red deer was continued. 



For years afterwards, at the festive gatherings at 

 the Horse and Groom, a handsome silver cup used to be 



