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148 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



for wheat that had ever been obtained in the county. 

 In every way is he entitled to the praise of posterity. 



There are many famihes in which M.F.H. honours 

 may be regarded as hereditary. The Wynn family 

 is certainly one of these, and the present head of the 

 family ably keeps up the tradition. But it is of his 

 predecessor, the sixth baronet, who was born in 1820, 

 and succeeded to the title in 1840, that I wish now 

 to write. Not only was he the largest hereditary 

 landlord in Wales, but he was an hereditary M.F.H. , 

 for his great-grandfather was as celebrated for his 

 love of sport as he was for his Jacobite opinions, and 

 when, in 1745, he was compelled to quit Wales, he 

 found sporting hospitality with the Duke of Beaufort 

 at Badminton. 



At the early age of twenty-three Sir Watkin re- 

 vived the pack which his father had given up in 1837. 

 Two years before he had purchased the hounds of 

 Mr. Leche, of Sarden Park, a member of one of the 

 oldest fox-hunting families in Cheshire, and an inti- 

 mate sporting friend of the Wynns. Mr. Attye had 

 hunted the Wynnstay country from Lightwood Hall, 

 a farm of Sir Watkin's in the centre of the country, 

 for the two seasons during which the Baronet was 

 detained in London by his military duties. In 1843 

 Sir Watkin bought the Perthshire from Mr. Grant, of 

 Kilsfraston, the eldest brother of Mr. Frank Grant, 

 the celebrated artist, and erected new kennels at 

 Wynnstay, which for space, modern improvements, 

 and conveniences were surpassed by none. To im- 



