GREAT RUN OF THE RYTCHLEY FROM KNIGITTLEY WOOD. 487 



GREAT RUN OF THE PYTGHLEY FROM 

 KNIGHTLEY WOOD. 



Remarkable as the great season of 1889 — 90 was for long 

 runs (especially in the Daventry neighbourhood) it had nothing 

 to compare with that of the Pytchley on Saturday, Feb. 18, 

 when they made a sixteen-mile 'point in two hours, and ran a 

 hrace of foxes to ground at the finish ! 



Facts unadorned by fancy are fortunately the most suitable 

 diet for the sportsman's digestion ; and these I am able to give 

 him, as rendered by reliable witnesses and participators. He 

 can then draw his own conclusions, or adopt their encomiums if 

 he thinks fit. For me it remains merely to locate the scene and 

 convey my information as a score of kind friends give it me. 



The Pytchley, then, had held their yearly meet at Weedon 

 Barracks, with a view to the at least annual draw of the fine 

 woodlands, just south of this soldier's elysium (as it may, and 

 ought to be, deemed). Woodlands they scarcely are; but, 

 rather, detached little woods, such as foxes and huntsmen alike 

 appreciate — where the former can scarcely be disturbed by 

 sheepdogs or terriers, and where the latter can always be with 

 their hounds. Dry and quiet and warm are these : and this is 

 the time of year when travelling foxes come to them from afar. 

 Yet already the Grafton (in whose hands the hunting of them 

 is mainly left) have had at least two runs — fast and far — from 

 Knightley Wood, the source of Saturday's almost phenomenal 

 chase : the two led them a long distance upon the track of 

 Saturday. 



The " run of the century " an ex-master deems it — and no 

 better judge than he. " The finest run I have ever seen," 

 write several trusty members of the Whitecollar Hunt. " One 

 of the best runs that ever occurred in the memory of any living 

 sportsman," is the enthusiastic testimony of a staunch and 

 straightgoing yeoman. " A marvellous hunt," is the verdict of 

 a capital soldier : and " the straightest, most engrossing, and 

 (for a long run) the quickest I ever rode " is the opinion of 



