94 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



means he either hit the scent again immediately or lost 

 his fox. Slow hunting runs after foxes that had gained 

 a great advantage would not have been satisfactory^ to 

 one in fifty of the field, or the master himself. Many 

 who frequent Leicestershire care very little about 

 hunting; it is the pace they admire, and if hounds 

 cannot go sufficiently fast to get away from the horses 

 they are sure to be ridden over. When merely going 

 from one covert to another Mr. Osbaldeston would pro- 

 ceed as fast or faster than hounds in the provincial 

 countries generally go through their hunting runs. All 

 this suited the tastes of the men of the day, and it was 

 evident he could not fail to be popular. It was vastly 

 amusing when the hounds, with a good scent and the 

 assistance of a brook or some rasping fence got a 

 field or two ahead of the first flight, to hear the Squire 

 call out in ecstasies, "Now ride ; why the devil 

 don't you ride over them now?" Perhaps it was bad 

 policy, because it excited many thoughtless men to 

 override his hounds, when they had opportunities of 

 doing so, out of bravado ; but I can always enter into 

 the enthusiastic delight of a master of hounds when he 

 beholds his darlings beating the horses. 



The next in succession was Lord Southampton, who 

 took the country^ in 1827 or 1828, at which time Mr. 

 Osbaldeston removed his establishment into North- 

 amptonshire. Not having hunted in Leicestershire 

 during his lordship's occupation of it I am unable to 

 give any account from personal observation ; but it was 

 unanimously acknowledged that Lord Southampton's 

 anxious desire to promote sport could not be exceeded 

 by any other master of hounds before or since. The 

 two first seasons the hounds were hunted by Dick 

 Burton, who lived with Mr. T. A. Smith during his 

 occupation of the Quom country, and likewise at one 

 period with Mr. Osbaldeston. 



What pack of hounds his lordship commenced with 

 I cannot ascertain, unless (which I believe to have been 

 the case) he purchased some from the latter gentleman. 



