BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 127 



pay the debts. But, as his biographer, Sir Denis Le 

 Marchant, says, " he had too big a heart for a game- 

 ster " ; and, though he was afterwards associated with 

 many of the biggest gamblers of the century, I can 

 find no record of his gambhng. The Pytchley wood- 

 lands were more to his taste than the saloon at 

 Crockford's. 



Lord Althorp reigned over the Pytchley from 

 1808, when he purchased the hounds from Mr. John 

 Warde for ^1,000, till 18 17, when he resigned the 

 Mastership in favour of his old friend Sir Charles 

 Knightley, owing to a bad fall which he sustained 

 in a run from Brampton Wood in November, 1817. 

 As an enthusiastic sportsman, I do not believe that 

 Lord Althorp has ever been surpassed in the hunting 

 field. Thus, after a late sitting at the House of 

 Commons, he would gallop from London to North- 

 amptonshire in time to hunt with the Pytchley on 

 the following morning, the relays of horses on the 

 road being always ready for him. He considered 

 that duty commanded him to attend the House of 

 Commons, but his heart was with the Pytchley. 

 Eight months out of the twelve he spent in North- 

 amptonshire, and during the cub - hunting season 

 resided for weeks at a cottage at Brigstock, which 

 he shared with Sir Charles Knightley, so as to be 

 near to kennels. Though he was far from being a 

 good horseman, he was an excellent judge of hounds, 

 and introduced into his kennels a lighter and quicker 

 build of hound than had been seen before. At first 



