38 GOOD SPORT 



All three have different styles of ridmg, but besides 

 their horsemanship they all have the knack of getting 

 the shortest way to hounds." When Firr was in- 

 capacitated through accident, Lord Lonsdale hunted 

 the Quorn hounds, and did it to the entire satis- 

 faction of a very critical field. 



The opening meet at Kirby Gate in 1903, which 

 inaugurated Lord Lonsdale's mastership, was a 

 scene of exceptional splendour, attracting a crowd 

 of record dimensions. Tom Firr, who commenced 

 his twenty-third season, appeared wearing a " pink " 

 coat, leathers, chain, whistle, battle-axe and swan- 

 necked spurs, astride a bang-tailed chestnut horse 

 with no mane. He looked more solemn than ever, 

 even when greeted by his contemporary Frank 

 Gillard from Belvoir, riding a short-tailed black 

 horse, Smoker, renewing memories of the seventies, 

 when he was huntsman to the Quorn. The whole 

 of the Quorn staff were mounted on bang-tailed 

 thoroughbred chestnut horses ; the two whippers-in 

 being Alfred Earp and Tom Parker ; the pack for 

 the day, twenty couple of the bitches. Every 

 up-to-date detail and possible improvement to en- 

 sure sport had been thought out by Lord Lonsdale, 

 whose ideas are always in front of his time. The 

 hunt second horsemen were provided with leather 

 cases, containing old brandy and every appliance 

 necessary in the emergency of accident to man 

 or horse. It was said that a small yellow van 

 which followed, to pick up lame hounds, also 

 carried changes of raiment and food for the men. 



The commissariat department for a hunting 

 staff is a point that often wants more consideration, 

 and might save us from a dyspeptic race of huntsmen. 

 The weakest spot in the anatomy of a hunt-servant 

 or horse is the digestion, for long hours and improper 



