

THE PROVINCES. 249 



of Nimrod do congregate. In the year 1822 the growing 

 importance of Leamington had already begun to vex the souls 

 of the good old county families who looked to Warwick as their 

 capital. A year or two later Mrs. Landor wrote to her famous 

 son at Florence that the charms of this new watering place were 

 'driving the gentry away from Warwick.' Between 1830 and 

 1840 Leamington used to boast itself a rival to Melton, and if 

 other things than riding to hounds may come into the account, 

 it was perhaps more than a rival. The steeplechases helped it 

 much. In the great days of that amusement, when Captain 

 Becher on Vivian held the pride of place afterwards held by 

 Jem Mason on Lottery, before the star of Liverpool had risen, 

 Leamington divided with St. Albans the honours of the flag. 

 Nor is it only for the Warwickshire hounds that Leamington is 

 handy. The Quorn, the Pytchley, and the Atherstone, the 

 Duke of Grafton's, the Bicester, and the Heythrop may all 

 be reached therefrom. The poorest part of the country is 

 oddly enough just round about Leamington ; the best on the 

 Shuckburgh side on the far east, where a deal of riding is 

 wanted to see what hounds are doing. Banbury and Fenny 

 Compton are also convenient quarters ; the latter more so for 

 choice meets, the former, within the Oxfordshire border, as a 

 place of residence, being by an hour or more nearer to London, 

 and also containing more human interest. Stratford on the 

 western side has also its advantages, besides that pre-eminent 

 one of association with a certain William Shakespeare who 

 knew the points of a good horse, as he knew everything else, 

 better than most men. It is also near the kennels, which were 

 settled at Kineton in the first year of Mr. Barnard's mastership, 

 on land given to the hunt by Mr. George Lucy of Charlecote 

 Park another association with the name of Shakespeare. So 

 keen was the interest taken in the work all along the country- 

 side that the materials were drawn to the spot by the waggons, 

 five hundred and fifty-three in all, of one hundred and eighty 

 farmers. 1 The grass lands of Warwickshire cover about one- 



1 Records of the Chase, ch. vii. 



