SQUIRE OSBALDESTON 93 



period they were in the Pytchley country, there were 

 no less than twenty-four and a half couples by him. 

 The Squire would occasionally make the whole of his 

 draft for the day's hunting of hounds by this celebrated 

 sire, a circumstance which, I believe, no other master 

 could imitate. In the abstruse mystery of breeding 

 hounds Mr. Osbaldeston was to the highest degree 

 eminent ; he perfectly understood the symmetry of the 

 fox-hound and those combinations which are necessary 

 to attain perfection. His retirement from the list of 

 masters of hounds, which took place in 1834, was a sub- 

 ject of serious regret to every devotee of * the noble 

 science.' 



Many persons were of opinion that Mr. Osbaldeston 

 was hasty ; that he was quick cannot be denied, especially 

 in getting his hounds 1 away after a fox had broken 

 covert, and it was that quickness which occasioned so 

 many of the fast bursts for which he was so highly 

 celebrated. To make a good beginning is of the greatest 

 importance ; if the first burst is sufficiently fast to blow 

 the fox and force him off his point, a huntsman may 

 play with him as he pleases afterwards. A long slow 

 run of three or four hours' duration was not then, any 

 more than it is now, the kind of chase to suit the pre- 

 vailing spirit in Leicestershire. That was exploded in 

 Mr. Meynell's time, and is not likely to be revived. 

 With respect to pace, Mr. Osbaldeston was perfectly 

 suited to the country and the taste of those who hunted 

 in it. Leicestershire is a county peculiarly adapted to 

 Mr. Osbaldeston 's style of hunting, where he could 

 throw his hounds into a gorse covert with almost a 

 certainty of finding; where he could get them away 

 close to his brush, and with anything like a scent bring 

 his fox to hand in from half an hour to five and forty 

 minutes. Having accomplished that, he could go and 

 find another. It was on those occasions the Squire 

 shone conspicuously. It was his maxim to kill his fox 

 expeditiously. When his hounds came to a check his 

 cast was a bold one, quick and decisive, and by this 



