THE ATHERSTONE 107 



the Quom ; indeed that part which is in the county of 

 Leicester is quite equal to any in the kingdom. He 

 must be fastidious who cannot be pleased with the 

 country from Burbage Wood, Peckelton, Bos worth, 

 Osbaston, Sutton Ambion, Normanton Gate, Ullesthorpe 

 (a railway station), Newnham, Churchover, Coomb Ab- 

 bey, and several other places of meeting on the eastern 

 boundries, most of which are easy of access from London 

 by rail. Ashby-de-la-Zouch may be mentioned as the 

 northern extremity, and Coventry the southern. Sutton 

 Coldfield and Lichfield are on the west, which is the 

 most indifferent f>ortion of the country. This is the 

 present extent of the district ; to reach this point it has 

 undergone numerous changes of masters and boundaries, 

 rather perplexing to describe in consequence of its having 

 been hunted in parts by so many different persons 

 before it became identified by the name which it now 

 bears. 



The first master of hounds in this district of whom I 

 can obtain any information was the late Marquis of 

 Donegal ; but the exact period when his lordship 

 hunted the country I am not able to state, neither can 

 I ascertain the extent; suffice it, therefore, to say that 

 it was principally in the neighbourhood of Lichfield 

 and Tam worth. After the marquis came Lord Talbot, 

 of Ligestre Hall, who was succeeded about the close of 

 the last century by Lord Vernon, in what was then 

 called the Sudbury country but which now forms a part 

 of Mr. Meynell Ingram's. Lord Talbot's hounds were 

 sold to Mr. Lambton in 1793, which affords some 

 criterion of the date when they were in force. 



Lord Vernon hunted a considerable extent of country 

 around Lichfield, including Cannock Chase (not used 

 in the present day as a hunting district, a great portion 

 of it being converted into coal fields), Black Slough, and 

 Hop was Hayes. To this the country near Gopsal 

 appears to have been added by Lord Vernon, where 

 there were kennels ; and his lordship resided at Gopsal 

 House six weeks at a time, alternately with his own 



