122 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



to the north of Cole-Orton Hall, crossing the Ashby-de- 

 la-Zouch and Leicester turnpike, continued between Nor- 

 manton and Ravenstone, straight on between Ibstock and 

 Ibstock Grange, between Nailstone and Bagworth, then 

 parallel with the main road from Barlaston to Blaby, as 

 far as Enderby Lodge, seventeen miles as straight as 

 a gun-barrel. It is a thousand pities that no one is 

 able to tell us — 



" How they pressed, how none forsook it through that brilliant hour, 

 How they ran their fox and killed him by the flooded Soar." 



Not but what it must have taken considerably over an 

 hour to do those seventeen miles, and " hour " does not 

 quite rhyme with " Soar." This reminds one of the story 

 of Ben Jonson and John Sylvester rhyming to their 

 names. " I, John Sylvester, kissed your sister," rhymed 

 the latter ; and Jonson retaliated with, *' I, Ben Jonson, 

 kissed your wife." " That does not rhyme," Sylvester 

 protested. " No, but it is true," was the stinging retort. 



About the time of this run Mr. (afterwards Lord) 

 Vernon was living at Marchington, and Mr. Bott — the 

 father of those two good sportsmen, Mr. R. Bott of 

 Church Broughton, and JVIi-. W. Bott of Somersal House 

 — was at Coton. One night Mr. Bott of Coton was coming 

 home from the Derby ball, with his wife in his carriage, 

 with post horses and a postilion. The latter proved to 

 be drunk, so Mr. Bott deposited him in the dicky, and, 

 with his legs encased in woollen overalls, took the postilion's 

 place in the saddle. The consequence was that he wore 

 out the overalls and ran the carriage into his own gatepost. 

 His wife was the niece of Captain Arden of Fulbrook, 

 Barton-under-Needwood, a great character. His toilette 

 was of the oddest description, and he never ceased smoking 

 a huge pipe all the time he was out hunting, having even 

 been seen to stop in the middle of a run for the purpose 

 of lighting it. Both his horse and his coat were said to 

 be twenty-five years old. Mr, George Moore, of Appleby, 

 was also a very regular follower of the Meynell in those 



