CHAPTER II 



THE QUORN AT KIRBY GATE 



An appreciation of Kirby Gate — Melton Mowbray described — The crowd 

 of sight-seers — The influence of hunting on various undertakings — 

 Tom Firras a houndsman— Quorn Alfred — Tom Firr the horseman 

 — Other Quorn huntsmen— Captain Frank Forester, master of the 

 Quorn, and his horses — Captain Burns Hartopp, ex-master; the Hon. 

 Lancelot Lowther, deputy master— The House of Lords and fox- 

 hunting — Distinguished personages in a Kirby Gate field — The 

 field at Kirby Gate, 1908— The splendour of the Earl of Lonsdale's 

 mastership — Hunting fare— What Tom Firr and Frank Gillard 

 rode on — Celebrities at Kirby Gate, 1903 — Mr. and Mrs. James 

 Hornsby of Stapleford Park — The silver whistles of the Quorn 

 — A run and mark to ground — Harry the Quorn runner— Tom Firr's 

 whoo-whoop ! 



" Fill up a bumper ! No hounds can go faster, 

 No country can equal our country of Quorn. 

 Health and long life and success to our Master ; 

 Long may Firr flourish and carry the horn. 



See through the covert the staunch hounds springing ! 



Hark to the halloa ! Hark to the horn ! 

 Hark to the silver whistles ringing ! 



Follow, follow, follow the Quorn." 



— H. Cumberland Bentley. 



The Opening meet of the Quorn on the first Mon- 

 day in November at historic Kirby Gate acts 

 as a curtain-raiser for another season's sport in 

 the shires. The country-side looks forward to the 

 pageantry of the chase on this day ; its gay colour- 

 ing and bright surroundings doing quite as much 

 to keep fox-hunting in favour as any of the more 

 sterling advantages it can boast. It is a gay scene 

 and wholly English, one that the oldest rider to 

 hounds can never watch unmoved. Kirbv Gate 



