THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 



Mr. JohnWarde Tattersall at '* The Coroer." He was a strict discip- 



* liDarian in the field, but it was generally done by wit 



and ridicule. In fact he was as noted for his wit as he 

 was for his sport. 



^anecdo?e!"^"° ^^^ following anecdote is a characteristic one of 

 this prince of masters. When he was hunting the 

 country now comprised in the Oakley, the Duke of 

 Bedford, who also had a pack of fox-hounds, appointed 

 them to meet one day at a covert on his own estate. 

 Mr. Warde, thereupon, wrote a polite note to the 

 Duke informing him that, according to the rights of 

 fox-hunting, he could not draw the appointed covert 

 although it was his own. In consequence of this the 

 Duke altered his fixture, and the first time Mr. Warde 

 drew that covert he and some friends who were 

 staying at Woburn attended the meet. Mr. Warde 

 rode up to his Grace and taking ofif his hat said — *' My 

 Lord Duke, I am extremely sorry that my duty as the 

 present occupier of this country, compelled me to 

 establish my right to draw this covert ; having done 

 so I now concede it to your Grace, so long as I hunt 

 the Oakley country, and have no doubt it will afford 

 you good sport." 



Hiswitandanec- To a friend who had been making some remarks upon 

 dotes. ^jjg ^jg heads of his hounds, he replied that they 



were of such a weight that, having got their 

 noses well down to the ground, it was not very 

 easy for them to raise them up again. Notwithstand- 

 ing his great hunting achievements in all parts, and the 

 large number of appointments he fulfilled, of a sporting 

 and social nature, far and wide, he managed pretty often 

 to run to his seat .in Kent to see how matters were 

 progressing, and many landlords would find benefit by 

 remembering more often his sage remark that *' the best 

 manure is the landlord's heel." Although in the latter 

 part of his career he was wealthy, he was not always so, 

 and once threatened to give up hunting in consequence 

 of a succession of bad harvests and arrears among his 



