362 WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. 



There might perhaps be better Sportsmen than Mr. 

 Corbet, bvit he was eminently gifted for the situation of 

 Master of fox-hounds. He was a very highly finished gen- 

 tleman of the old school, — preferable, some say, to the new 

 one ; polite to every one, but never losing sight of his 

 station ; his popularity had no bounds. The gentlemen of 

 the comity honoured him j the yeomanry almost adored 

 him. A vulpecide was not known within ten miles of his 

 hunt. 1 



Mr. Corbet resided near Stratford-on-Avon, during 

 the hunting months, his kennel and stables being in the 

 town. The situation was far from desirable, being almost 

 on the outside of the country, and consequently occasioning 

 additional travelling to the hovxnds in going to, and return- 

 ing from, the covers. He had likewise another kennel at 

 Meriden, six miles from Coventry, on the London road, 

 which he occupied when he hunted his Woodlands. 



His establishment consisted of twenty horses for him- 

 self and his men, which were generally purchased from his 

 tenants in Shropshire, as yearlings, and he had hounds 

 sufficient to hunt four days in the week, and sometimes five. 

 His fixtures were always made for three weeks in advance, 

 and they were made with very excellent judgment as to the 

 capability of the country, and the convenience of those 

 Sportsmen who resided in it. He was one of the first to 

 separate the sexes of hounds in the field, and his pack of 

 bitches were in the highest repute. They seldom missed 



1 Mr. Warde once hunted Warwickshire, previously to his taking 

 Northamptonshire, and was succeeded hy Mr. John Corbet, of 

 Sundorne Castle, Shropshire, who hunted it upwards of 20 years. It 

 was during Mr. Corbet's time that Warwickshire flourished. The 

 country was then entire, possessing, independently of what is called 

 the open part of it, decidedly the second best Woodlands in the world 

 for hounds and Sportsmen. 



