362 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1874 



hunted " for conformity sake," " Why, when he's pulled 

 off his boots, and grumbled at his horse, it is the happiest 

 time of the day for him ! " Or of a very fat man he 

 would say, " He ought to be set to follow the plough." 



"Why?" 



" Because he would lard the earth and improve the 

 land ! " 



These are but poor samples of an original vein of humour, 

 from which something pungent was always emanating. 

 No hunting day passed without his saying something 

 worth repeating. He was one of the very last of the 

 native-born landowners to give up hunting, and now, 

 alas ! he too has retired from the field. If it is any 

 consolation to him to know it, it is quite certain that he 

 will be missed. 



His brother, the major, is still hunting with the 

 Meynell, and lives at Bowbridge, Langley, but the parson, 

 who was once rector of that parish and a capital man to 

 hounds, gave up hunting on principle when he took orders. 

 He is now rector of Stapenhill, near Burton. 



This season did not begin very brilliantly, for hounds 

 went out (commencing in Bagot's Wood, where there were 

 plenty of cubs) seven days without killing. However, on 

 the eighth day they got one into a drain in Lord's Meadow 

 and dug him. All of these eight days were in the woods. 

 They also went cub-hunting in Derbyshire in September, 

 visiting Doveridge, Sudbury, Bretby, Shirley, Brailsford, 

 and Egginton. During cubbing they brought eighteen 

 brace of cubs to hand and ran seven brace to ground. 



From Lord Waterpark's diary : — 



Monday, Nouemher 2nd, Sudhury. — Found a lot of foxes by the Lake banks, 

 killed a brace in covert, went away with a third down the meadows within a field 

 of the Hare Park, crossed the river, up by Wood Villa, over the North Staff, 

 Kailway below the Gendals at Loxley, and killed in a garden by Bramshall 

 village. Capital line, and not a single plough field the whole way, but hounds 

 could never go fast. Found again in Hare Park at Doveridge. Ran through a 

 corner of Sudbury Coppice, almost to Cubley Gorse, where he turned to the left 

 towards Marston Park, recrossed the road, and we stopped the hounds, it being 

 nearly dark, by Birchwood Park. Good day's sport. 



