64 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



The house is, like its inmates, thoroughly English in 

 character. There is something in its massiveness, and 

 in the mellowed ruddiness of the bricks of which it is 

 built, which is entirely suggestive of English country 

 life. 



"Peaceful, graceful, complete English country life 

 and country houses, everywhere finish and polish, nature 

 perfected by the wealth and art of peaceful centuries." 

 So Kingsley wrote in his charming " Prose Idylls," and 

 some such thought must be in any one's mind, who stands 

 on the broad terrace in front of the noble Georjrian 

 mansion, and looks out on the park, with its grand old 

 oaks, and on the rich, thickly-timbered pasture land 

 beyond. 



Hard by, in the dip below the Hall, is the ancient 

 church, and by it stood once the old Hall, of which Leland, 

 in his " Itinerary " (Vol. 8, pp. 25 and 26), in speaking of 

 " Sir John Chandois, the famous warrior," who died 

 in 1370, says : "the old house at Eodborne is no great 

 thing, but the last Chandois " (Temp. Henry VI.) " began 

 in the same lordship a mighty large house of stone, with a 

 wonderfull cost, as it yet apeirithe by the foundations of a 

 man's height, standynge as he left them. He had thought 

 to have made of his old place a colledge." There was 

 also tieing-up room for a hundred horses, which gives 

 some idea of the magnitude of the proposed house, which 

 was never finished. It was through the marriage of Sir 

 Peter de la Pole with the heiress of this Sir John Chandos 

 that Kadburne came to the Poles, who long before that 

 were settled at Hartington, and subsequently at Moat 

 Hall, Newborough, whence they moved to Radburne. 



About half a mile or so from the house is the famous 

 Rough, a history of which would include many, if not 

 most, of the best runs with the Meynell hounds. There is 

 no better fox-covert anywhere, as it is a tangled mass of 

 osiers, rushes, and thick undergrowth. It takes a good 

 deal of drawing too, as old Tom Leedham found to his 

 cost, when he had drawn it blank, and the present squire's 



