CHAPTER XIV 



HUNTING WITH THE COTTESMORE AND 

 ARTHUR THATCHER 



The old and the new school of hunting — Tom Firr's opinion on a trying 

 day's sport for the huntsman — Mr. Evan Hanbury — Arthur Thatcher 

 the whipper-in, then huntsman to Essex Union — Good advice to 

 whipper-in and huntsman — The Cottesmore country described — A 

 country to make a pack of hounds — Good old county families — The 

 Earl of Ancaster — Sir Gilbert Heathcote's mastership — Large land- 

 owners — Launde Wood — Prior's Coppice — Ranksborough Gorse — 

 Arthur Thatcher's best hunting run — Belvoir and Cottesmore com- 

 pared — Two good hunts in December 1903 — Beau Brummell and 

 buff tops — A good hunt through Morcary into Lincolnshire — To 

 ground by Little Bytham — A long continuous hunt — The Cottesmore 

 and Fitzwilliam packs join and kill — A great day's sport in the 

 Manton district — A distinguished Cold Overton field — Over the 

 Whissendine brook — A wild Lincolnshire woodland fox " brushed " 

 by Thatcher — Tom Firr assists Thatcher in a hunt — A tribute to 

 Arthur Thatcher's worth. 



" What ! four of us only ! are these the survivors 

 Of all that rode gaily from Ranksboro' ridge? 

 I hear the faint splash of a few hardy divers, 



The rest are in hopeless research of a bridge ; 

 Vce vidis ! the way of the world and the winners ! 

 Do we ne'er ride away from a friend in distress ? 

 Alas ! we are anti-Samaritan sinners, 



And steaming past Stapleford, onward we press." 



— W. Bromley Davenport, M.P. 



A BRILLIANT era of sport distinguished Mr. Evan 

 Hanbury's seven years' mastership of the Cottes- 

 more, 1900-1907, with Arthur Thatcher, one of the 

 quickest of the new school of huntsmen. It has 

 been said of the grass countries that pace is the 

 ehxir of the chase, and Leicestershire cannot be 



fully appreciated unless the hunt travels fast enough. 



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