Sir TClcbarfc Sutton 413 



Scraptoft ; we'll give him a gallop'' And so they did, 

 ten minutes in covert and five-and-thirty minutes out, 

 and ran into him near Beeby. 



"Jack ! " said the delighted Master to his favourite 

 whip, " ifs one of the best days I ever saw. I feel a 

 thousand times better for it. I hope I shall meet you at 

 Ratcliffe on Tuesday? 



The next morning he went up to London on business. 



On the Tuesday the hounds met at Ratcliffe. Sir 

 Richard's favourite hunter was waiting for him at the 

 covert-side, the pack had just proclaimed by their 

 stirring music that they had found their fox, the field 

 was all eager to see him break covert, when up dashed 

 a groom from Quorn Hall at full gallop, and raising his 

 hand, shouted to the huntsman, " Stop the hounds." 



" What for?" said that functionary gruffly. 



" Because Sir Richard is dead? 



The words fell like a thunderbolt on all present. 

 Hounds were promptly stopped and taken back to the 

 kennels, and the field sadly dispersed, awestricken by 

 the thought that the " master-spirit " of Leicestershire, 

 the man whom they had seen among them in full health 

 and vigour but four days before, was no more. 



Sir Richard's death was painfully sudden. He had 

 eaten a hearty breakfast, had written some letters, and 

 ten minutes later was found by one of his servants lying 

 dead. The cause of death was angina-pectoris. He 

 had not quite completed his fifty-seventh year. But he 

 came of a short-lived race. His father died at the age 

 of forty-two, and Sir Richard has had no fewer than four 

 successors in the baronetcy. None of his descendants, 



