228 FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE 



of a certain Market Harborough hunting-box we 

 have counted a thousand head of cattle grazing 

 in the view ; the fences being necessarily strong to 

 keep the roving bullocks in bounds. For days 

 together a Pytchley hound may hunt without ever 

 being off the grass, though there are some muddy 

 corners in this happy hunting ground ! 



With Lord Annaly master, and Frank Freeman 

 huntsman, the Pytchley has an ideal combination, 

 resulting in most enjoyable seasons of sport. That 

 of 1910-11 was one of the most open in the 

 history of the hunt, hounds being stopped on three 

 days only by frost and weather, sport too was ex- 

 cellent, though the going was holding ; many runs with 

 point and pace coming into the season's record. Alto- 

 gether it was memorable, and the fact that a hundred 

 brace of foxes were slain, stamps the Pytchley as 

 a killing pack. Towards the end of the season, as 

 the going improved there were a sequence of good 

 runs, recorded briefly in the Northampton Herald, 

 as follows : " Saturday, March 4th, there was a 

 glorious gallop of forty minutes from Loatland 

 Wood. The great run on Saturday the nth from 

 Badby Wood across the Grafton country finished 

 near Wappenham. Then again Saturday the i8th, 

 when hounds met at Oxendon, they scored a six and 

 a half mile point, followed by a finer gallop ere the 

 day was over for Perser's Hill Gorse. Then came 

 Saturday 25th at Kilsby, where three splendid 

 gallops filled in the day — two of them on Warwick- 

 shire ground — finishing late near Chuckburgh ; 

 the twenty-two minutes from Lilbourne to South 

 Kilworth, on Wednesday the 29th ult., followed by 

 a fine hunt later on of an hour and a half, will not 

 readily be forgotten by those who had the privilege 

 of joining in them." 



