SIR HENRY HALFORD. 1 65 



But the limits of the country Mr. Tallby had been hunting 

 became curtailed. Col. Lowther, the then master of the 

 Cottesmore, claimed the portion of that country and its 

 woodlands, and so deprived it of an essential requisite. 



Six seasons have elapsed since then, and Mr. Tailby has now 

 definitely determined to give up his hounds. 



What has recently ensued (as appears in the Leicester news- 

 papers) is that Sir Henry Halford is therein reported to have 

 stated, as chairman of a Meeting at Kibworth on the 27th of 

 February, that ' of the twenty-seven owners of coverts fifteen 

 had written to say they would prefer Mr. Coupland to hunt 

 the country, three had expressed a wish for the country' to be 

 kept distinct, and the others had given no opinion at all.' 

 Considerable discussion and disorder is reported to have arisen 

 at this meeting, the result of which was to appoint a committee 

 of land owners and occupiers, seventeen in all, for the next day 

 at Ilston. 



The newspaper reports that fifteen attended the Ilston 

 meeting, when there was, it is believed, a majority (so it is re- 

 ported) of seven in favour of the Billesdon side continuing to 

 be separately hunted. 



Whether the procedure of convening such a committee — 

 whether it was a precedent to be followed — or whether it was 

 representative of the interests of the principles at stake, were 

 matters of conversation in fox-hunting circles. 



On the 2nd of March, Sir Bache Cunard wrote to the covert 

 owners of the Billesdon side to say : — 



* At a General Meeting of the Billesdon Hunt, at Kibworth, 

 on February 27th, I was asked to take the hounds, to which I 

 have agreed. May I have your permission to draw your coverts 

 in future ? ' 



Thereupon Mr. Coupland wrote to Sir Bache Cunard in the 

 following terms (March 9th) : — ' I find some of the covert 

 owners in both North and South Leicestershire think that in 

 the interests of fox-hunting the matter of Tailby's country 

 should be referred to the committee at ' Boodles.' It is very 

 different your starting a separate country to Tailby, who had it 

 so many years, and when all the covert owners wished him 

 to continue ; but, as matters now stand, the majority of covert 

 owners in Tailby's country have written accepting my proposal 



