DATES OF THE PRINCIPAL HUNTS 15 



family maintained the hounds, but in that year they 

 were sold to Sir William Lowther (afterwards Lord 

 Lonsdale), and since that date there have been many 

 masters, including several members of the Lowther 

 family. The present Lord Lonsdale took office in 1907, 

 having previously been master of the Quorn, the 

 Woodland Pytchley, and the Blankney, and he sig- 

 nalised his accession to office by the purchase of the 

 bitch pack of the South Cheshire, which came into the 

 market owing to that country being reunited under one 

 master. Lord Lonsdale bought these hounds at 

 Rugby, and gave some ;^i7oo odd for a short but 

 beautiful pack. 



The Pytchley is another of the old hunts, dating 

 from 1750 (or thereabouts), when Lord Spencer formed 

 a club at the Old Hall in the little village of Pytchley 

 (near the Midland main line on the eastern side of the 

 country), but it was never exactly a family pack, in spite 

 of the fact that the Spencer family have afforded no 

 fewer than four masters. In 1782 the club had a mem- 

 bership of twenty-eight, exactly half of whom were 

 titled, and the hunt has a list of masters which takes a 

 lot of beating, though as a rule Pytchley masterships 

 have been of short duration, there having been over 

 thirty masters and joint masters in a period of 158 

 years. Amongst the most celebrated were Mr. John 

 Warde, Sir Bellingham Graham, Mr. Musters, Mr. 

 George Osbaldeston, Mr. "Tom" Smith, Colonel 

 Anstruther Thomson, Mr. W. M. Wroughton — a 

 great houndman — and the present master, Lord Annaly. 

 It is indeed a moot point amongst hunting people as to 

 whether it is the greatest honour to be master of the 

 Pytchley, the Quorn, or the Cottesmore ; all three are 

 positions of the highest importance in the hunting 



