1793] THE VERNON HUNT. 7 



in one strong, absolute monarchy. And in the case under 

 consideration the monarch was Hugo Meynell, of Hoar 

 Cross, Staffordshire, grandson of the great father of fox- 

 hunting of Quorn renown, who came to the throne, so 

 to speak, in November, 1816. But, long before this — in 

 1785, in fact — Lord Talbot had a pack of hounds at 

 Ingestre. When he gave them up, in 1793, Lord Vernon, 

 the second baron, the hunting lord, as he is sometimes 

 termed, bought several couples. Tradition also asserts 

 that Lord Downshire purchased two couples, which were 

 sent to Hillsborough, in Ireland, and found their way 

 back to Ingestre in the course of a few weeks. The Vernon 

 hounds consisted of about fifty couples, of Talbot and 

 Meynell blood. Samuel Lawley was huntsman, while his 

 son William, and Harry Jackson, were the whippers-in. 

 Lord Vernon, the members of the Hunt, and the servants, 

 wore coats of bright orange and low-crowned hats. The 

 colour was adopted as having been the livery of the Vernon 

 family. All authorities seem to be agreed as to the colour 

 of the coats ; Cecil, in his hunting tours, going so far as 

 to say that there was great rivalry between the red and 

 orange coats when their respective wearers met in the 

 field. Yet, in the picture of Samuel Lawley at Sudbury, 

 the coat is the orthodox scarlet, though he wears a low- 

 crowned hat in lieu of a cap. However, whatever the 

 colour of the coats may have been, there is no doubt about 

 the excellence of the hounds as regards hard running and 

 stoutness. In fact, a cross between the stock of Osbaldes- 

 ton's Furrier and Lord Vernon's Eocket is said to have 

 produced the stoutest hounds in the world. They had 

 need to be stout, too, for, considering the extent of country 

 in which they hunted, they must have had some desperately 

 long days. It comprised the district belonging to the late 

 Mr. Meynell Ingram, including Ingestre, Sandon W^ood, 

 and Cannock Chase, westward to Hatherton ; that part 

 of Leicestershire hunted by the Atherstone hounds on 

 Mondays and Wednesdays, called the Gopsall country, 

 and, for spring hunting, Brook Hay, Biddle's Field, and 



