THEIR PHILOSOPHY OF THE CHASE. 6l 



and by all accounts, like his forefathers, he was " much 

 addicted to the chase." 



Coming to more recent times, however, it is known that 

 George III. was very fond of stag hunting ; but the earliest 

 mention of a pack of foxhounds, such as we understand that 

 term to-day, is recorded in a letter which Lord Arundel 

 wrote in 1833 : " That his ancestor kept a pack of fox- 

 " hounds between 1690-1700, which remained in the family 

 " till 1782, when they were sold to Hugh Meynell of Quorn- 

 " don Hall, Leicestershire." 



Lord Wilton, in his " Sports and Pursuits of the 

 English," says : " About the year 1750 hounds began to be 

 entered solely to fox"; and in the "Field" (1875), is 

 mentioned a horn inscribed " Thos. Boothby, Esq., Tooley 

 " Park, Leicester. With this horn he hunted the first pack 

 " of foxhounds then in England 55 years. Born 1677, 

 " died 1752." 



After this detour, we may take it that the most cele- 

 brated Sporting Parson of modern times, or at any rate the 

 one whose life has been brought most conspicuously before 

 the public through the publication of his charming memoirs 

 some years ago, was the Rev. Jack Russell. Although I 

 believe the reverend gentleman was seldom seen in the 

 Shires, fortunately Mr. Tailby has preserved the record of 

 a splendid run in which he participated. This memorable 

 occasion was on the ist February 1866, when, as Mr. Tailby 

 describes in his Journal, hounds met at Ilston-on-the-Hill, 

 when " the great sporting parson was out with us, and said 

 he never saw so good a run in his life." It appears that — 



After drawing Norton Gorse blank, hounds found at Shangton 

 Hoh ; ran through the Hardwicks, through Noselej'^ Wood, 

 almost to Keythorpe Wood, left it on the left by the Keythorpe 

 Fishponds, through Ram's Head almost down to East Norton, 

 bore up the hill, by Vowe's Gorse, leaving it on the right, away 

 as if for Norton Hill, where a fresh fox jumped up before the 

 hounds ; ran to the left over the large pastures up to Horning- 

 hold Brook, crossed the Horninghold and Hallaton Road, ran 

 very quick by Blaston Pasture, up the hill by Dent's Spinney, 



