THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 15 



CHAPTER III. 



StRATFOED-ON-AvON as a HUNTING CENTRE — THE 



HUNT CLUB. — " The Black Collars " — cus- 

 toms OF THE CLUB — A MEMORABLE RUN IN 

 1801— ANOTHER SEVERE DAY FROM WOLFORD. 



I have already referred to the sporting character stratford-on;- 

 of the White Lion Hotel, at Stratford, in the merry huVtSig c^entre 

 old days when John Warde presided over the sport of 

 the locality. Merrier days however, were still in 

 store for it when Mr. Corbet came from a neigh- 

 bouring county and made it his centre. He es- 

 tablished there a hunt club on an extensive scale. In the 

 early days of fox-hunting, which may be taken as the 

 final quarter of last century and the first of this, the 

 social aspect of the sport had not arisen. The field 

 was not then graced by the many fair ones, who, 

 now-a-days, not only do not disdain to appear at covert- 

 side, but can give some of their stronger companions a 

 good lead on a stiS' line. 



The followers of Mr. Corbet's hounds were men. The social aspect. 

 and men only, and as, in the morning, they 

 bore each other company in the field, so, in the even- 

 ing, they were mainly dependent upon their own good- 

 fellowship for the enjoyments wherewith to finish 

 up the day. When Mr. Corbet brought his hounds 

 to Stratford-on-Avon, Leamington was a mere village, Leamington. 

 the only pretensions to a spa it possessed being a 

 range of baths newly erected by Matthew Wise, Esq. 



