168 WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. 



We should not forget the late Master of the hounds, 

 E. J. Shirley, Esq. of Eatington, whose family possessed 

 that lordship before the Norman Conquest. Dugdale says 

 — ' The only place in this country that glories in an unin- 

 terrupted succession of its owners, for so long a tract of 

 time.' — Mr. Shirley does credit to his ancestry. He has 

 given the most universal satisfaction, and his motive for 

 leaving them, which I had from his lips, is creditable to his 

 feelings as a man. ' We cannot do every thing, (said he,) 

 I am building a house on my property in Ireland, where I 

 mean to reside part of the year, and the hounds would be 

 much in my way.' Were some other Irish proprietors to 

 follow Mr. Shirley's example, Ireland would have reason 

 to rejoice, and two hundred Mr. Shirleys, scattered up 

 and down that ill-fated country, would do more for the 

 souls and bodies of its inhabitants than their religious 

 freedom — great as the boon may be — and three parts of 

 their priests into the bargain. — nimrod. 



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