MR. COUPLAND, 163 



The proposal was duly considered at a hunt meeting of the 

 whole Quorn country at Leicester, and, as Lord Stamford 

 required no subscriptions, it was deemed advantageous, and 

 accepted ; it being decided, during the continuance of Lord 

 Stamford's tenure, to hunt the Billesdon side {i.e. south of 

 Leicester and Uppingham Road) by subscription. 



And here it is that it may be well emphatically to record, that 

 neither Lord Stamford nor the hunt meeting at Leicester, 

 composed as it was of land owners permanently interested in 

 the fox-hunting welfare of the Quorn country, and mindful of 

 its glorious traditions, for an instant intended that temporary 

 arrangement to for ever sever the Billesdon side from the main 

 body of the country. It is true some time elapsed before Mr. 

 Tailby offered to hunt it with a subscription, and by some the 

 acceptance of Lord Stamford's liberal offer is called an 

 ' abandonment ' of the Billesdon side. 



Lord Stamford was succeeded, after seven seasons, by Mr. 

 Clowes for three ; the Marquis of Hastings for two ; Mr. 

 Musters for two likewise, until 1870, when Mr. Coupland 

 became master. 



Upon these several occasions, Mr. Tailby being desirous to 

 continue to hunt the Billesdon side, common courtesy prevented 

 that side being reclaimed to its own ; and there was, moreover, 

 another reason for not disturbing the arrangement — namely, 

 that a part of the Cottesmore country and Cottesmore wood- 

 lands had been provisionally added to the Billesdon side, which 

 it was considered advisable not to interfere with. 



Mr. Tailby having hunted these portions of the Quorn and 

 Cottesmore for sixteen seasons, wrote on the 19th of June 

 1871, to Mr. Coupland to say, ' it is my intention to give up the 

 country I now hunt at the end of next season, but I have not 

 as yet given the landowners formal notice of such intention.' 



What then happened, six years ago, may, as matters now 

 stand, be interesting to record. Mr. Craven offered to hunt the 

 Billesdon side two days a week, but retracted that offer. 



So did subsequently the Marquis of Queensberry, who, in 

 writing to the Press to do so says : — 



' Will you allow me to correct the statements which appeared 

 in " The Field " last week, with reference to my having 

 declined, on account of the small prospect of sport, to hunt 



