294 APPENDIX. 



The great Mr. Meynell was designated, by his admiring 

 friends, as "The King of Sportsmen ;" — " The Hunting Jupiter." 

 He had earned tliose titles by the success of his practice, — 

 by the sport which he had shown ; but, without an acre of land 

 of his own in Leicestershire (the whole of his extensive estates 

 being situated in remoter counties), he could not have carried 

 on the war, as a stranger, in the very heart of the best hunting- 

 country in the world, had not his conduct, from the commence- 

 ment to the close of his career, been characterized by the 

 deportment which distinguishes a thorough-bred English gen- 

 tleman. He was, indeed, as much the repandu of the elite of 

 Grosvenor Square — as much at home at St. James's — as he was 

 at Quorndon, or at Ashby pastures. 



" The evil that men do lives after them ; 

 The good is oft interred with their boues" — 



but with reference to this great professor of the science which 

 he adorned, it has been universally allowed by all who knew 

 him, that he was one of the most agreeable and accomplished 

 of men, and that he was most justly estimable in all the rela- 

 tions of social life. 



It is much to be regretted, that none of his contemporaries 

 should have thought fit to compile and publish the memoirs of 

 one, who 



" Lived not for an age, but for all time" — 



seeing that they could not have failed in exciting that interest 

 which they must possess for all sportsmen. 



At such a distance of time, it is difficult to ascertain the 

 precise date of Mr. Meynell's first appearance in Leicestershire, 

 and other facts, of minor importance to my purpose, yet highly 

 essential to any one undertaking the task of his biographer ; 

 although, from the members of his family, and from his grand- 

 son and present representative, Hugo Charles Meynell, Esq., 

 residing and keeping foxhounds upon his property at Hoar 

 Cross Hall, Rugeley, Staffordshire, I have experienced all the 

 courtesy and attention to inquiries, which might have been ex- 



