154 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1846 



Bell's Life, April 14tli, 1844 :— 



MR. MEYNELL INGRAM'S HOUNDS. 



Mr. Editor, — Mr. Meynell Ingram's hounds finished the season with a blank 

 day. Up to the frost no hounds in the kingdom could have shown more sport, 

 but after that period they did nothing particular, except meeting with a suc- 

 cession of blank days. With such hounds and so liberal a master this was truly 

 provoking. Owners of coverts should either refuse a master of hounds per- 

 mission to draw them, or should take care to preserve foxes for him, as a blank 

 day disappoints the master and the men, the hounds and the field, ah ! and I 

 think I may say the horses also. Arrangements have been finally made by those 

 two first-rate sportsmen, Sir Seymour Blane and John Story, Esq., to keep on 

 the hounds of the late Marquis of Hastings, under the name of either the North 

 Leicestershire or the Trent Vale, it is not yet quite determined which. That 

 prince of horse-dealers, Potter, of Talbot Lane, is prepared to horse the men in 

 first-rate style, and a brilliant season may be expected. The Atherstone hounds 

 have been purchased by the committee, but are at present without a master. 

 Several are talked of as likely, the latest being Mr. Lowndes. It is a nice 

 country for any man desirous to be at the head of a capital hunt, and few such 

 can be obtained wliere so little money is required. Should no definite arrange- 

 ment be come to, there is little doubt tliat George Moore, Esq., of Appleby, will 

 be master jjro tein., and a capital master of hounds he will make ; it would be 

 indeed desirable that he should take them into his own management at once. 



The year 184G is remarkable for the entry of one of 

 the most famous of Mr. Meynell Ingram's hounds, Agnes, 

 to wit, and also of her scarcely less notable brother. 

 Adamant, who was used very freely later on. How much 

 the former was valued may be reckoned by the fact that 

 she remained in the pack till ten years later, and in the 

 entry for the season after that we still find her to the 

 fore with Absolute and Alice by Pillager. Through their 

 grand-dam on their sire's side — Adelaide — Agnes and 

 Adamant get two crosses of the Pytchley Abelard, a 

 hound to which Mr. Meynell Ingram seemed to be very 

 partial, and also go back to Bridesmaid, whose grand- 

 dam came direct from Quorn. A propos of this, it seems 

 strange that old writers should make so much ado about 

 the three or four hounds which are known to have come 

 from that fashionable quarter, if, as others assert, the 

 whole of the Hoar Cross Harrier pack was formed from 

 undersized drafts from the same source. 



Whatever the cause, the records of the sport shown 

 become very meagre for some time, and it is not till 1850 



