38 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



1800, from a fall from his horse, predeceasing his father, 

 who lived till 1808. 



The following is a description by Nimrod of the per- 

 sonal appearance of the great Father of Fox-hunting. He 

 used these words : " Although forty-one years ago, I have 

 a good recollection of his face, and still better of his 

 person ; his grey locks more than peeping from under his 

 black cap, and his keen, ay, piercing eye. I remember, 

 also, that he sat rather on one side of his saddle, as if he 

 had one stirrup shorter than the other, and was without 

 spurs, but kept kicking his horse's sides with his heels, 

 not at all afraid of going the pace over all kinds of ground. 

 His appearance was extremely sportsmanlike." 



If the grandfather began his career as a master of 

 hounds at eighteen, the grandson was not slow in follow 

 ing his example, for he could not have been more than 

 eighteen when he started his harriers, though he was 

 thirty-three when he became Master of the Hoar Cross 

 Hunt. Who were the men who came hunting with him 

 to compare the good qualities of " those three famous 

 bitches from Mr. Heron — Fallacy by General, and Nelly 

 and another of the Meynell (Quorn) Stormer blood : of 

 Nathan by Mr. Meynell's Bertram out of his Nelly, which 

 was descended in a direct line from Stormer and the Quorn 

 blood on both sides ? This Bertram was by Lord Althorp's 

 Abelard (Mr. Warde's famous Charon sort) out of Mr. 

 Meynell's Bridesmaid — the grand-dam of which bitch was 

 given to him by Jack Raven, huntsman to his grandfather. 

 She was got by Ranter — out of Bonnybell, a favourite 

 bitch of the latter 's, which the huntsman used to swear by." 

 The men? Well, of course, there- was a Chandos-Pole 

 or two; Sir Henry Every, a bold man on a good horse, 

 with Mr. Frank Wilmot always ready to sell him one of 

 the right sort; Mr. R. Peel from Burton End; Captain 

 Drury from Hilton, a hard rider; the Eev. G. Leigh, 

 desperately fond of hunting, and a hard rider in the same 

 sense as Mr. Jorrocks of immortal memory ; the Rev. F. 

 W. Spilsbury from Willington, before mentioned ; two 



