98 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1826 



and made oS. On examining the tree, he discovered a 

 sort of den, so pleached and interwoven with branches as 

 to make a capital place for the fox to eat and sleep un- 

 molested. Mr. Meynell's hounds had drawn this covert 

 blank several times this season, and no doubt our friend, 

 curled up in his nest, enjoyed seeing them. From the 

 amount of debris of game and poultry, he must have used 

 it for some time. Perhaps this was one of Mr. Buckston's 

 keeper's fir-tree foxes, who had l)een gradually educated 

 up to the idea. 



The Hunt Ball on April 5tli this year seems to have 

 been a great success. " The gentlemen of the Meynell 

 Hunt Club received the nobility and gentry of the neigh- 

 bourhood in the new Assembly room. A brilliant company 

 assembled from 9.30, and dancing commenced at 10.30, 

 and was maintained till 2 a.m. E. S. Chandos-Pole and 

 Theophilus Levett, Esq., were appointed stewards for this 

 occasion. Mr. Levett was unavoidably absent. It was 

 observed that a greater numl)er of strangers were present 

 at this ball than usual. Nearly three hundred persons, 

 from the most distinguished families in the neighbourhood 

 partook of the evening's festivities." 



Mr. Theophilus Levett here mentioned was an ardent 

 sportsman. He it was who ofi'ered Lord Vernon nine 

 hundred guineas for three of Sam Lawley's horses, which 

 sum his lordship was magnanimous enough to refuse. Nim- 

 rod says : " There were few better riders than Mr. Levett, 

 a welter weight, and his horse, Banker, will, with himself, 

 long be remembered in the Atherstone country." Mr. John 

 Boutbee, Mr. Vaughton, and Mr. Edmund Peel, were three 

 others who were always in the van when hounds ran. 



1826-1827. 



Cub-hunting began on the 1st of September, 1826, in 

 Bagot's Woods, and they found a fine lot of cubs up till 

 the opening day, which was at Foston, on October 23rd. 

 There happens to be a printed account of a day in the 



