238 HUNTING. 



groom, and Jack Raven, the huntsman. There was anolhei 

 great run from here in ' the Squire's ' time, ten miles to Ranks- 

 boro', of which only 'the Squire,' on his famous little Assheton, 

 and Mr. Greene, on his even more famous bay mare, saw the 

 end. Along the western boundary from Kirby Muxloe north- 

 wards to Lord Ferrers' and the Nottinghamshire districts the 

 county changes ; woods grow larger and ploughs mostly take 

 the place of grass. Still, foxes are as plentiful as ploughs ; and 

 as the hard-riding dandies do not patronise these uncivilised 

 parts, the hunting is good enough, whatever the riding may be. 

 If your fox slips from Charnwood Forest, as the wild hilly 

 country from Bradgate to Gracedieu is called, over the Ather- 

 stone border, there will be plenty of riding. 



The country now hunted by Sir Bache Cunard's hounds is 

 that once known as Mr. Tailby's. As we have said, it was first 

 made a separate country in Sir Richard Sutton's time, and was 

 once larger by the piece a few years ago reclaimed by the 

 Cottesmore. It has also been known as the Billesdon Hunt, from 

 the fact of the hounds having been originally kept at Billesdon, 

 a fact commemorated by the initials 'B. H.' still worn on their 

 coat-buttons by members of the hunt. In the old days, before 

 Mr. Tailby's area became so sadly circumscribed, when Jack 

 Goddard, and then Frank Goodall, held the horn, there was no 

 such sport shown anywhere in the Shires. Leicester and Market 

 Harboro' command the country, but if you intend to limit 

 yourself entirely to these hounds, and they will give you sport 

 enough unless you insist on hunting every day in the week, 

 either Kibworth or Billesdon is more central. Five days a 

 fortnight is the fare provided— Mondays, Thursdays, and alter- 

 nate Saturdays, when the Cottesmore are away on the eastern 

 side of their kingdom. Gumley, Mowsley, Shemsby, Brunting- 

 thorpe, Kilby and Wistow are the pick of the Monday meets 

 in the southern district Most of the coverts are small, and 

 there is more plough than in the northern half j but there are 

 several fine galloping bits, from John Ball, for instance, or 

 Walton Holt westward to the Atherstone country. All these 



