RADBURNE. 55 



uncommon steadiness, and are allowed to be the completest pack of barriers, 

 for shape, bone, blood, and beauty, now in Derbyshire, or the adjacent counties. 

 After the chace, the company in the field, consisting of twenty, were invited 

 to the hospitable mansion of Sir Henry p]ver}', where they continued their jollity 

 and mirth till a late hour, and departed full of the praises of their worthj' 

 host. 



I am, gentlemen. 



Yours, etc., 



A Constant Reader. 

 Windsor, November 18th, 1795. 



Through the kindness of Colonel Chandos-Pole, the 

 author has had access to a hunting-diary kept by the 

 former's great-grandfather, and some of the runs are so 

 good that they seem to be worth mentioning in an account 

 of the Meynell country, though they have not actually 

 anything to do with the ]\Ieynell Hounds. 



The diary, dated September, 1790, begins with this 

 maxim : "To keep up twenty couple of hounds, three 

 couple of whelps should be entered annually, and six or 

 seven couple bred and sent to quarters. By breeding so 

 many the pack will be good, and at the same time hand- 

 some, and you will have no occasion to keep hounds above 

 six or seven years old." 



Mr. Chandos-Pole kept rather over twenty couples of 

 hounds, at one time he mentions twenty-four and a half, 

 and hunted, on an average, three days a week, while his 

 places of meeting were Langley, Rough Heynors, Radburne, 

 Morcaston, Brailsford, Dalbury, Mickleover, Lees, Culland, 

 Littleover, Bearwardcote, Burnaston, Ednaston, Hulland 

 Ward, Mansel Parks, Barton Fields, Sutton, Nunsfield, 

 Trusley, Duffield, Windley, Hazlewood, Muggington, 

 Ramsden's Parks, and he also went to Breadsall and 

 Morley. 



Though the hounds principally hunted hare, yet they 

 had many a good chase with a fox, sometimes found and 

 sometimes turned down. Not unfrequently the fox was 

 taken alive. Wagstaffe, nicknamed Wag, was huntsman, 

 and wore what was the Radburne livery, until usurped 

 by George III. — a red coat with black collar. A good 

 story is told of how the squire one day heard a great 



