196 FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE 



property of the Duke of Buccleuch — and good fox 

 ground. The hunt staff are well mounted on 

 long-tailed hunters, above the average of servants' 

 horses in quality and appearance. Mr Stanley 

 had two of his favourites out, a true made bay, 

 with a white face, named Boots ; and Hames, a big 

 black horse with rare hips and jumping quarters. 

 My own mount from the master's stable was 

 a Leicestershire horse, with perfect mouth and 

 manners, which means so much in the enjoyment 

 of a day's sport. Hounds quickly found their first 

 fox in the grounds of Carlton Hall ; but the hunt 

 was a brief one, the smart bitches racing into him 

 before he could get clear of the home park. After 

 that we hunted a beautiful country of grass and 

 woodland, looking across to Mr Fernie's domains 

 on the far banks of the Welland. 



The Manor House at Brigstock, formerly an ancient 

 monastery, is a most interesting old-world building, 

 and has been used by a succession of masters for 

 a hunting-box convenient for the kennels. In 

 the hall and dining-room Mr Stanley has many 

 fine-antlered heads, trophies of the chase during 

 his mastership in the west country ; but as a foil 

 to these are numerous life-size, coloured plaster 

 models of foxes peering down from shelves and 

 niches in the dark oak panelling. It is quite 

 evident that the heart of the master of the Wood- 

 land Pytchley is in fox-hunting, and he has the 

 making of a first-class pack of hounds. 



The annual Point to Point Races in connection 

 with the Woodland Pytchley hunt were brought 

 off in Brigstock Park on Wednesday, April 5, 191 1, 

 by the kind permission of Lord Barnard and his 

 tenants ; a remarkably good course of three and 

 a half miles being prepared. The event is one 



