26o HUNTING 



third of the area ; they are often deep, and the ploughs are not 

 of the lightest. There is a good deal of timber, and the hedges 

 are thick and strong ; brooks are not very plentiful nor very 

 large, though the land is watered by two rivers, the Avon and 

 the Stour. Lord Willoughby de Broke, the present master, 

 hunts five days a week, though four only are in the bond. 

 Both coverts and foxes are well cared for, and indeed there 

 are few countries where the old hunting spirit has been better 

 maintained than Warwickshire, and not many quarters where a 

 man may quietly enjoy more good sport in pleasant company 

 than Banbury. 



Though a separate pack of hounds has intermittently hunted 

 the northern portion of the country since the beginning of the 

 century, that now known as the North Warwickshire was 

 not definitely settled, according to 'Brooksby,' till 1853, when 

 Mr. Selby-Lowndes took the mastership. He only stayed in 

 the country for two seasons, but Mr. Baker, who followed, held 

 it till ill-health made him retire in 1862. He showed fine 

 sport, and so did Mr. Oswald Milne after him for seven seasons, 

 and then his pack, a particularly good one, passed to Mr. Lamb, 

 the present master. Birmingham on the north-west, Leaming- 

 ton on the south, and Rugby on the east mark the boundaries 

 of this Hunt, which is much smaller than the older branch on 

 the south ; rougher too, with more woodland and less grass, 

 and some say, rather fewer foxes. Still near Birmingham there 

 is some nice galloping ground, and from Hillmorton Gorse 

 or Bunker's Hill in the Rugby district one of the finest grass 

 lines anywhere in England. Besides the towns mentioned, 

 Coventry also comes into play for these hounds. 



Besides the Warwickshire packs Banbury also commands 

 two others of historic repute, the Bicester and the Heythrop. 

 The first-named can show as fine a record as any pack in the 

 kingdom, from the beginning of the century when Sir Thomas 

 Mostyn had them, with the elephantine Stephen Goodall for 

 huntsman, and when, according to ' The Druid,' upwards of a 

 hundred hunters were stabled in the little town from which the 



