CHAPTER VI 



THE FAME OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



The pre-eminence which Leicestershire has acquired as 

 the great and fashionable arena of fox-hunting may be 

 ascribed to three causes : the nature of the country 

 being peculiarly adapted to the purpose ; the eclat 

 which the late Mr. Meynell established at an early date, 

 when ' the science ' was in a crude state ; and the lustre 

 subsequently shed over it by many of that talented fox- 

 hunter's successors. 



Mr. Meynell hunted the Quorn country about five 

 and forty years, commencing soon after the termination 

 of the first half of the last century, and continuing till 

 the first or second year in the present. It was, of 

 course, long before my time ; but having for many 

 years enjoyed the friendship of one of his grandsons, 

 and also of the late Mr. John Lockley, a contemporary 

 of Mr. Meynell's, I am indebted to them for many 

 interesting facts and circumstances connected with the 

 chase at the period when elegance and refinement first 

 shed their influential rays upon it. 



When Mr. Meynell first entered upon Leicestershire 

 he resided with Mr. Boothby, who contributed towards 

 the expenses, at Langton Hall, and the hounds were 

 kept at Great Bowden Inn, which, although in 

 Leicestershire, is quite on the confines, bordering on 

 Northamptonshire ; and I believe he hunted part of 

 what is now the Pytchley country. He subsequently 

 purchased Quorndon Hall from the Earl Ferrers, which 



