14 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1S02-1841 



Jackson (afterwards in the service of Mr. Talbot and Lord Middleton) and his 

 son Wilham, active and clever whips. 



1802. — The beautiful forest of Needwood, as well as Charnwood, at this 

 time unenclosed, offered every opportunity for early and late hunting, especially 

 in stooping the young hounds to scent in April and May with hare, from which 

 they were made steady in autumn. 



1803-4. — The veteran, Mr. Meynell, occupying, with his hounds from 

 Quarndon, the kennels at Bradley during the summer, and occasionally upon his 

 return into Leicestershire, drawing the covers at Bradley, Longford, and Shirley 

 Park, which he afterwards relinquished to Lord Vernon. 



1805. — About this period Lord Vernon, who had hitherto kept the whole 

 establishment at his sole expense, gave it up and the hounds, which were con- 

 tinued in his name, with a handsome subscription, under Mr. Talbot's manage- 

 ment, an additional kennel being erected at Brereton. 



1812. — The death of Mr. Talbot at the commencement of the season brought 

 the hounds and horses to sale and broke up the whole concern, with the excep- 

 tion of a small pack of select hounds reserved by Mr. Harbord, Lord Vernon's 

 son-in-law, for hunting the immediate Sudbury country during winter. 



1813. — Lord Vernon's death following that of Mr. Talbot, this year the 

 reserved pack also was offered for sale and purchased by Mr. Arkwright and a 

 few neighbouring gentlemen to keep in the country until some favourable 

 opportunity might occur for reuniting the whole or hunting the Sudbury part 

 of it. Small kennels were erected at Aston, a subscription entered into, Mr. 

 Arkwright taking the management, with W. Lawley as huntsman, and J. 

 Kichards under him, old Sam Lawley giving occasional assistance in the field 

 and advice in the kennel. 



From September, 1814, to April, 1815, thirty-six foxes were killed and 

 fourteen nm to ground. 



1815. — The (so-called) Derbyshire hounds in these two seasons had many 

 excellent runs, and at the close of 1815, Sir John Broughton, then occupying 

 Drakelowe Hall in the minority of Sir R. Gresley, made proposals to purchase 

 the pack for five hundred guineas and hunt the country on a subscription of 

 eight hundred guineas. A subsequent offer being made by Mr. Osbaldeston to 

 take the hounds at that sum and re-unite the Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and 

 Leicestershire countries, hunting four days a week, without any but a kennel 

 subscription, a meeting was called at Lichfield and his offer accepted. 



August, 1815. — Mr. Osbaldeston commenced the season with a very full 

 pack, entered under his own management, and a handsome stud of hunters, but 

 very soon fell out with the Sudbury portion of his countr3\ 



1816 to 1841, — Various circumstances occurred to augment this ill feeling 

 during the wintei*. Another meeting was called in the spring at Sudbury, when 

 the gentlemen present requested Mr. Osbaldeston to discontinue drawing their 

 covers. Those of the Atherstone district took a different part. Mr. Osbaldeston 

 continued to hunt this division, and it has since remained a separate country 

 under him. Sir B. Graham, Lord Lichfield, and Mr. Applewhaite. In the 

 autumn of the year, Mr. Meynell, then a member of the Pytchley Hunt, and 

 occasionally resident at Hoar Cross, where he kept a pack of full-sized harriers, 

 bred from the best foxhound blood of Quarndon, very liberally offered to take 

 the vacant country, which he has since, for a quarter of a century, held, and in 

 which it is to be hoped he, with his excellent brother and son, may long continue 

 to enjoy the pleasures of the chase and afford to his numerous friends sport, not 

 inferior to that which he has this year shown them. 



