94 THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The rise op Leamington— its effect on the 

 Warwickshire country— the Spa as hunt- 

 ing quarters— A DAY IN THE MELD IN 1838. 



Leamington. In an earlier chapter, in speaking of Stratford-upon- 



Avon as Mr. Corbet's centre, I made a reference to 

 Leamington, at that time a mere village, although 

 destined to develop rapidly into a town of no mean 

 proportions. At the point of my history which I 

 have now reached, that developement had to a very 

 large extent taken place. Substantially-built houses 

 had taken the place of some three score humble 

 cottages, which had formerly constituted the com- 

 paratively insignificant village of Leamington Priors. 

 Thanks to the medicinal properties which existed 

 in the mineral springs to be found there, the popula- 

 tion was increasing by leaps and bounds, having risen 

 from 543 in 1811 to 12,864 in 1841, and in 1851 

 having still further increased to 15,724. 



I have thought fit to introduce this reference to 

 Leamington here, because the state of affairs is ex- 

 planatory to some extent of the agitation for an addi- 

 tional pack of hounds in Warwickshire, which I dealt 

 with in my last chapter. The rise of a fashionable 

 Spa in the heart of Warwickshire at this period when 

 the continental Spas were not sufficiently accessi- 

 ble to attract people from the English water- 

 ing-places, naturally put a new aspect upon 

 the fields of the local pack when the 



