THE QUORN AT KIRBY GATE 41 



three Leicestershire packs, and the Cottesmore meet 

 at Stapleford was the occasion for a magnificent 

 breakfast. 



Contrary to custom, Lord Lonsdale did not go 

 first to Gartree Hill, owing 

 to a death in the family 

 of the owner of the covert, 

 but moved the procession, 

 which extended over a 

 mile long, across to Welby 

 osier-beds. A field away 

 from covert we were held 

 up by the deputy-master, 

 Mr. Lancelot Lowther, 

 riding a short - tailed 

 black horse, the crowd 

 probably numbering over 

 three hundred horsemen. 

 The wait was only a short 

 one, when the silver whistle of the whipper-in 

 was heard ringing out, announcing that a fox 

 had been viewed afoot. Lord Lonsdale is of the 

 same opinion as the Duke of Beaufort and Colonel 

 J. Anstruther Thomson, that the sound of the 

 whistle has less chance of heading a fox back to 

 covert than the voice. Two twangs from Firr's 

 horn and the flag dropped to a good start, the large 

 crowd sweeping down the hill-side hke an avalanche. 

 As Mr. H. Cumberland Bentley says in his Quorn 

 hunting song, dedicated to the Earl of Lonsdale :— 



"Then with a rush hke a stemmed torrent bursting 

 Restraint, they are riding, three hundred and more, 

 For a start, and their hoof-strokes, the velvet turf shaking. 

 Beat Hke the sound of the surf on the shore." 



Streaking away up the plough with a line for 

 Grimstone Gorse, through which covert we rode. 



The Countess of Cardigan and 

 Lancastre. 



