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record. For seven and fifty years he kept hounds, and so 

 good a judge as Thomas Assheton Smith declared them 

 to be ' the best pack of hounds he ever rode to.' John 

 Warde's experience was varied, for he hunted at least 

 half-a-dozen different countries in his time. Born 

 about 1752, he undoubtedly kept a pack of foxhounds, 

 with which he hunted the district round his family 

 estate of Squerries, near Westerham in Kent, prior to 

 1776. Up to 1780 he was in or about Yattendon in 

 Berkshire ; thence he migrated with his hounds to 

 Oxfordshire, and subsequently to Warwickshire. In 

 1797 he was Master of the Pytchley, and held that 

 post till 1808, when he sold his pack to Lord 

 Althorp for 1000 guineas. Then he hunted the New 

 Forest till 18 14, in which year he became Master of 

 the Craven, where he continued to show good sport 

 until 1825 when he gave up the duties of a M.F.H. for 

 good. 



As may be gathered from his portrait, John Warde 

 was a big jovial Englishman, yet, despite his great 

 weight, he was uncommonly active and rode straight 

 and hard to the last. In whatever country he was, he 

 always showed extraordinary sport. Even in that 

 wretched scenting country, the Craven, his hounds 

 averaged their forty brace of foxes each season. Some 

 of his runs were remarkable. For example, on one 

 occasion in Oxfordshire his hounds ran through thirty- 

 two parishes before they killed their fox. But his 

 greatest run was on February 3, 1802, during his 

 mastership of the Pytchley. They found a fox 

 between Welford and Market Harborough, and killed 

 him at Tilton-on-the-Hill, a point-blank distance of 

 eighteen miles over the finest part of Leicestershire 



