NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



ful sport in Warwickshire, and some of the runs of 

 that day were of extraordinary length and severity. 

 Slow hunting was, of course, still much in vogue, 

 although the foxhound was being rapidly improved in 

 pace and quality. In 1795 the pack ran for six hours, 

 and it is computed that they must have travelled close 

 on fifty miles of country. 



This fine old ancestor of modern hunting gave up 

 the Warwickshire country in 181 1, after twenty years 

 of extraordinary success. His generosity, tact, and 

 great courtesy, especially to the farmers, are to this 

 hour a tradition in the county. I have in my young 

 days often talked with old Warwickshire people who 

 could remember in their youth Mr. Corbet and his 

 hounds. The old print of the famous Warwickshire 

 master and his pack, sometimes hung in their dining- 

 rooms, and the memories of Squire Corbet seemed even 

 then very fresh in their minds. That Mr. Corbet main- 

 tained his hunt in first-rate style is shown by the fact 

 that at the sale of his hounds and stud two of his 

 hunters realised 250 guineas each — a great price for 

 those days. 



The examples of Corbet, Warde, Meynell, and 

 others of the same stamp had a great and rapid effect 

 throughout the country. Packs were properly organ- 

 ised, hunt clubs formed, kennels built ; the methods 

 of hunting underwent radical changes. The desire 

 for bolder and quicker runs began to develop with the 

 improvement in hound blood. Small coverts were 

 planted, as it began to be recognised by the new 

 school that hunting in the great woodlands often meant 

 long and tedious days of slow sport, and that from 

 gorse coverts, planted in convenient parts of the 

 country, first-rate runs in the open were most frequently 

 obtained. 



130 



