198 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



this horse to jump. He seemed to float up into the air. 

 The Master found out how good he was in that wonderful 

 gallop from Langley Gorse, up to the Vicar Wood, Kedles- 

 ton, and, from there, as hard as hounds could go, to the 

 top Foston covert, where they checked, and then ran on 

 to Sapperton, in 1887. After that he thought nothing of 

 jumping the Sudbury Park palings on him opposite the 

 road to Somersal out of the Sudbury turnpike. Pit-a-pat, 

 by Downpatrick out of Dear Heart, was not a very bad 

 one either, neither was Cornwall, who cleared the Somersal 

 brook, just below the Hall. A big place it is, as Mr. 

 Wallroth found to his cost, in trying to follow the Master 

 and Mr. Poyser on St. Mungo. 



Mr. Fort joined the 11th Hussars in 1878, to which 

 regiment Mr. "Jack" Gumming, eldest son of Admiral 

 Gumming of Foston Hall, also belonged, and this was the 

 cause of his brother-officer first coming to Derbyshire in 

 December, 1881, as a guest at Foston. When once in the 

 Meynell country, he very soon decided that that was the 

 place for him, and from that day to this he has never 

 wavered in his allegiance. For the rest of that season 

 he hunted from the Midland Hotel, Derby ; then came a 

 sojourn at Winslow. But even the attractions of the Vale 

 of Aylesbury, and of the great, stretching pastures, over 

 which " Squire " Selby Lowndes' beauties run so fast, could 

 not wean him from his aff'ection for the Meynell. So, after 

 his marriage, in August, 1882, to Miss Leigh, daughter of 

 Mr. Henry Blundel] Leigh of Amington, back he came to 

 take up his quarters at Church Broughton. In 1883-1884, 

 and 1884-1885, they were at Field House, Marchington, 

 which had been temporarily vacated by Lord Parker, who 

 had gone to India. In March, 1885, they came to the 

 Cottage, Foston, where they have been ever since. 



In October, 1881, Mr. Fort resigned his commission in 

 the 11th Hussars, having been elected as the liberal member 

 for Clitheroe, which place he represented till 1885. 



In April, 1893, he was elected Deputy- Master, or Field 

 Master, of the Meynell hounds in connection with the late 



