122 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



those people who believe, like Addison, that the 

 pleasures of memory resemble those curious reposi- 

 tories in animals that are filled with stores of food, in 

 which they may ruminate at their pleasure when 

 taken from the pastures in which they have collected 

 it, to refer back to the pages of the Racing Calendar 

 for further details of the Squire's career on the Turf. 

 I have only to add that he died on the ist of August, 

 1866. 



I ought, perhaps, to have referred to the sixth 

 Lord Middleton immediately after alluding to Mr. 

 John Corbet, whom he succeeded as Master of the 

 Warwickshire Hunt. Mr. Corbet's last fixture was 

 on the 9th of February, 181 1, and Lord Middleton's 

 first fixture was at Itchington Heath, on the nth of 

 February, 181 1. The dates are interesting, because 

 Mr. Corbet did not advertise his hounds for sale 

 till the morning of the 9th of February, when Lord 

 Middleton purchased them for 1,220 guineas, and 

 hunted them on the nth. Certainly in those days 

 they had a habit of making the coach run, and did 

 not dream of putting on the brake when it was a 

 question of hunting a country. It was a difficult task 

 to succeed Mr. Corbet, but personal popularity and 

 hearty support enabled Lord Middleton to achieve it. 

 In the first place he was known to be a staunch 

 friend to the farmers, and commenced his reign by 

 giving a dinner to sixty tenant farmers in his country, 

 in the Rising Sun Inn at Edgehill, while for many 

 years he gave a plate of £^0, to be run for at 



