40 REMINISCENCES OF 



CHAPTER II. 



ATHERSTONE: THIRD TIME. THE WELSH HOUNDS. 



1870. On the 2Oth January Oakeley wrote to 

 me saying that Curzon had decided to give up the 

 Atherstone Hounds at the end of the season ; that 

 he did not wish to leave Cliff or the country, and 

 that he had offered to take the hounds. He went 

 on to say, " Nothing would please me more than 

 that you should come here if it can be managed, and 

 I would much rather not take the hounds myself. I 

 enclose you the minutes of the meeting, by which you 

 will see that / am bound and not you, though if you 

 become Master you put yourself into my shoes as 

 long as it suits you to remain." 



"At a meeting of landowners and the sub- 

 scribers to the Atherstone Hounds, held at the Red 

 Lion Hotel, Atherstone, Thursday, i7th February, 

 1870. Present: G. Moore, Esq., in the chair; 

 Viscount Curzon, M.P., Hon. F. Curzon, Sir George 

 Chetwynd, Bart., W. E. Oakeley, Esq., J. Anstruther 

 Thomson, Esq., A. Cox, Esq., G. Turner, Esq., H. 

 Blackwood, Esq., C. H. Bracebridge, Esq. The 

 chairman read the minutes of the last meeting. 



" Mr. Oakeley proceeded to give his decision as 

 to hunting the country, and stated that having con- 



