48 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



the shape of a hound which ought always to be attended 

 to by a sportsman." Holding these opinions in great 

 respect, I have often been surprised at masters of 

 hounds resorting to kennels for fresh blood, the character- 

 istics of which are totally different from those of their 

 own packs in symmetry and style of working. 



On Mr. Corbet's retirement from the list of masters 

 of hounds in 1812, he sold his pack to his successor, the 

 late Lord Middleton, who hunted Warwickshire till 

 1822, when, in consequence of a severe fall, his lordship 

 declined, and the hounds were transferred to the care 

 of his friend Sir Tatton Sykes. Judging from a portrait 

 which I have seen of the celebrated Trojan and a stud 

 hound from Sir Tatton Sykes 's named Villager at the 

 Berkeley kennels in 1852, the same character is pre- 

 served. Whether the latter is a descendant of Trojan 

 I have not been able to ascertain. But he may be thus 

 described; his colour is black and white, with tan, 

 rather compact in form, with short good legs, very 

 deep in his chest, capital loins and thighs, and remark- 

 ably quick and active; has a sensible-looking head, 

 and is twenty-three inches high. 



That it is not possible Trojan was in work when Mr. 

 Corbet hunted Warwickshire will be gleaned from the 

 following particulars. The precise time of his com- 

 mencement as a master of hounds is not known ; but he 

 was born in 1752, and therefore, assuming that on 

 coming of age in 1773, he made his debut, that must be 

 very nearly the correct time. At first he had some fox- 

 hounds, with which he hunted in his native county of 

 Salop ; but Mr. Childe, of Kinlet, hunting one portion, 

 and Mr. Forester, of Willey Park, another, he was con- 

 fined for want of space, and converted them into 

 harriers. After a time he obtained possession of the 

 country near Lichfield, and resumed the chase of the 

 fox, the village of Shenstone being head-quarters from 

 whence he hunted some of the boundary coverts in 

 Warwickshire; and in 1792, or thereabouts), he entered 

 upon the whole county, having his kennels at Stratford- 



