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CHAPTER XIII. 



THREE MEN OF MARK — MR. HENRY BODEN — MR. CLOWES' 

 DIARY, 1844-47 — MR. WILLIAM TOMLINSON. 



]844. 



One of those who was hunting with the hounds about 

 this time was Mr. Okeover, of Okeover, who will always 

 be associated in the minds of his contemporaries with a 

 famous black horse, whose picture hangs in the smoking- 

 room at Okeover. The latter is a charming place just 

 outside the boundaries of the Meynell Hunt, though, once, 

 at any rate, hounds ran there — on a foggy day in the seven- 

 ties — from Shirley Park. Not a soul was with them, and 

 the keeper shut them up. An account of it, therefore, 

 hardly comes within the province of this volume. As to 

 the Okeovers themselves, they have been there from time 

 immemorial. At the time of the Conquest, Ormus, or 

 Orme, was lord of Acover and Stretton, and from him the 

 Manor of Okeover descended in a right line to Thomas de 

 Okeover in the reign of Henry VI. Shortly before the 

 present owner* came to reside there, the place was let 

 to Mr. Robert Plumer AVard, — the talented author of 

 " Tremaine " — who married the widow of the Rev. Charles 

 Gregory Okeover. This was about 1839. The church 

 there is not only most interesting in itself, but its resto- 

 ration can claim to be the chef cVccuvre of an artist in 

 Gothic architecture — Mr. William Evans, of Ellaston, tlie 

 original of Adam Bede. In an account of an interview 

 with him, whidi appeared years ago in the Gentleman's 



* AsLbourne and the family of the Dove. 



