Hunting in England 129 



a good horse they will give him the ride of his hfe. He will 

 find at the principal hunting centres such as Melton, INIarket 

 Harborough, Grantham, Rugby, Leicester, Oakham, etc., that 

 he is among the best horses, the best riders, the best packs of 

 hounds to be found in the world. He will find English sports- 

 men rather shy and hard to get acquainted with without a letter 

 of introduction, but when once the icy exterior is broken you 

 have a man you can hitch to, a friend you can swear by and a 

 companion you can love. From JNIelton you may hunt with the 

 Quorn, Cottesmore, Belvoir. From Market Harborough with 

 the Cottesmore, Pytchley and Mr. Fernie's hounds. From 

 Rugby with the Pytchley, Atherstone, War\^^cksllire and 

 North Warwickshire. From Leicester, Mr. Fernie's, Ather- 

 stone, Quorn. From Oakham, the Belvoir, Quorn, Cottes- 

 more. All of these packs, we believe, hunt five days a 

 week. By a short train run you may hunt over a still wider 

 district. 



From what has been said it must not be inferred that all 

 the best packs of England are within this enchanted ground. 

 So far, mention has been made of but eight different packs; 

 there must still remain sometliing over a hundred first class 

 packs in England alone to select from. 



Another charm about hunting in England is the style and 

 neatness in w^hich it is everywhere conducted. 



In the writer's personal experience he may mention the 

 Holderness near Hull, a racing pack, w^here mostly clean thor- 

 oughbreds are ridden. It is quite as fast as the fastest in the 

 JMidlands. Then comes the Earl of Yarborough's celebrated 

 pack in Lincolnshire. These hounds have a written pedigree 

 extending back 125 years and are known to have been in the 

 family for thirty years prior to that. ^lany years ago, when 

 agriculture was prosperous in England, Lord Yarborough, 

 who was a very extensive lando^vner, went so far in encourag- 

 ing his tenant farmers to hunt, that he presented them all with 



