THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 



ings. 



tenants. The next week £1,000 was placed to his Mr. John Wards 



credit in the bank by " A friend of fox-hunting," who ' 



was afterwards found to be his wife. 



He was one of the party technically known as "The 

 Old Lot "who met annually atTattersall's Derby Dinner ^^^^^f ^^^ ^^y- 

 at *' the Corner " and the gatherings were always enli- 

 vened by his wit and anecdotes, in the telling of which 

 he excelled greatly. He would give a stirring description 

 of the race that he drove from London to Oxford, and 

 how, as he crossed Magdalen Bridge, he heard the 

 horn of the other coach coming down Headington 

 Hill. The last surviving member of "The Old Lot" 

 was Mr. Fitzroy Stanhope, who died early in the 

 sixties. A few of Warde's sayings have become almost 

 proverbs, and are worthy of ranking as such. "Never 

 buy a horse from a rich man who hunts" was a 

 warning he gave, another containing a warning never 

 to believe a word any man might say about 

 a horse he might have to sell. " The age 

 of a horse is in his legs" was another, 

 and of breeding hounds, he remarked " Breed your 

 hounds with bone and nose ; without the one they 

 will tire, without the other they will slack." He died 

 in 1838 at the ripe age of 86 years and in him, there 

 can be no doubt, passed away one of the best of 

 gentlemen and one of the ablest, as he was one 

 of the earliest, of masters. When he withdrew from 

 Warwickshire in 1791, the scarcely less cele- 

 brated — and as far as Warwickshire is concerned, 

 perhaps more celebrated — Mr. Corbet brought his 

 hounds into the country. But Mr. Corbet fills an 

 important page in the history of " the Warwickshire" 

 and with him I shall therefore start afresh in the next 

 chapter. 



