CHAPTER III 



THE QUORN HUNT 



" Next Dick Knight and Smith Assheton we spy in the van. 

 Riding hard as two furies at catch that catch can. 

 ' Now, Egmont,' says Assheton, 

 'Now, contract,' says Dick ; 



* By gosh ! these d d Quornites shall now see the trick.' 



No Northamptonshire hunters for me." 



A Mr. Boothby of Tooley Park, Leicestershire, 

 first commenced to hunt this country at his own 

 expense from 1698 to 1753. In that almost '^pre- 

 historic age " hounds changed hands but seldom. 

 The present Quorn country forms a part of this 

 country. However, the immortal Meynell estab- 

 lished the glory of the Quorn hounds and his 

 forty-seven years' mastership in 1753. The hounds 

 then were kept at Great Bowden Inn, on the 

 borders of Northamptonshire ; the master, or joint- 

 masters (Mr. Boothby bore half the burden of 

 the expenses) lived then at Langton Hall. A little 

 later Mr. Meynell removed to Quorndon Hall, and 

 thence the pack took its famous name. In those 

 days there were no woodlands within the limits of 

 the country, and so Meynell used to stoop his 

 hounds to hare in the spring to keep them handy 



for fox in October. This did not, as may be 



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