128 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



the innovation was unpopular. Mr. John Warde had 

 been in favour of big hounds, especially for the 

 woodlands. But Lord Althorp soon convinced his 

 followers that his opinion was the correct one, and 

 so such good judges as Sir David Baird and Lord 

 Alvanley were attracted to the Pytchley to learn a 

 lesson from the Master. We must remember, how- 

 ever, that Lord Althorp spent from ;^4,ooo to ;^5,ooo 

 per annum on his hunting establishment during his 

 Mastership, and must have met with failures as well 

 as successes in hound-breeding. 



His greatest admirers admit that he was a clumsy 

 man on a horse. Both Sir Denis Le Marchant and 

 Mr. Ernest Myers state this, and Lord Althorp knew 

 it to be the case. He put his shoulder out so often 

 that he sent one of his whippers-in to the North- 

 ampton Infirmary, in order that he might be taught 

 how to put it in on an emergency. He rode the 

 best horses that could be bought for money, but 

 owing to his loose seat he was continually tumbling 

 off them. But he was honest enough to confess his 

 faults, and used to say that he always attached 

 himself to a pilot. This was very different to when 

 his father was Master, and when it was considered a 

 breach of etiquette for anybody excepting the hunts- 

 man to ride in front of the Master. But, though 

 both his father and his grandfather had hunted the 

 Pytchley country, it was not the desire of Lord 

 Althorp that the Pytchley should be considered an 

 hereditary pack, and he was never guilty of autocracy 



