152 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



It would be more than presumptuous in me to offer any further 

 opinion of the Duke of Eutland's hounds from merely what I saw 

 of them on this day, and also on the morning after Croxton Park 

 races, when nine hundred people were supposed to be out, and 

 hunting was of course only a secondary consideration. I liked 

 Goosey's (the huntsman) manner with his hounds very much indeed, 

 particularly his getting them away from covert. The Eufus-headed 

 whipper also took my fancy — not for his likeness to the Belvidere 

 Apollo, but for a something about him that looked very mu.ch like a 

 hard riding whipper-in to a good pack of fox-hounds ; and he seemed 

 to know his business well. The Duke's hounds hunt only four days 

 a week. 



On the 27th Captain Eoss, Mr. Grant, Mr. Douglas, and myself 

 rode over to Quorndon, at which place the hounds are kept, and 

 Mr. Osbaldeston resides. It is fourteen miles distant from Melton 

 by the Ijridle, and eighteen by the carriage road. 



The situation of Quorndon Hall, speaking geographically, always 

 struck me as being very ill-chosen, as it is so distant from the best 

 part of the country, and consequently causes so much travelling for 

 hounds — worse for them in Leicestershire than in most other 

 counties that I have been in. Its nearness to the high hills of 

 Charnwood Forest likewise would almost make a stranger believe it 

 was situated in any but a good hunting country ; and from the 

 populousness of the surrounding neighbourhood it would give him 

 more the idea of the residence of a great stocking manufacturer than 

 that of a master of a pack of fox-hounds. Here, however, it is 

 situated, and here it is likely to remain ; and it having been once 

 the residence of the great Meynell, it ought to be sacred even from 

 the consuming hand of Time. 



We found Mr. Osbaldeston in the kennel, accompanied by Sir 

 Harry Goodricke and Mr. Coke. After looking at the old hounds, 

 we proceeded to view the young ones ; and here I am bound to say 

 I never saw so fine an entry, consisting of no less than thirty-four 

 couples ! 



On few occasions — not even in a ball-room — is the word " beauty " 

 more often made use of than in a kennel of highly-bred fox-hounds ; 

 nor, indeed, is it often more appropriately applied. To imagine that 



