The Warwiekshire. 293 



THE WAEWICKSHIRE.* 



The Warwickshire Hunt has a recorded existence of a 

 century without a break ; and it is much further back 

 still that the famous John Warde brought his enormous 

 hounds into the country. But Mr. Corbet is generally 

 looked upon as being the father of the Hunt. He was 

 Master of the Warwickshire for twenty years commen- 

 cing A.D. 1791. Lord Middleton then purchased his 

 hounds ; took the country, and hunted it for the next 

 ten years ; after which it passed through various 

 hands till it came in 1 839 into those of Mr. Barnard — 

 afterwards Lord Willoughby de Broke, and father of 

 the present Master — who held it for seventeen years. 

 A former Lord Willoughby de Broke was one of Mr. 

 Corbet's chief supporters ; and it was his custom to 

 entertain the Master and members of the Warwick- 

 shire Hunt Club at dinner on the first Monday every 

 November. 



In the palmiest days of the Warwickshire Hunt 

 Club, which I take to have been between the years 

 1830 and 1840, or thereabouts, Leamington vied with 

 Melton in the quantity and quality of its hunting 



* Vide " Stanford's Large Scale Map," Sheet 15; also "Hob- 

 son's Foxhunting Atlas." 



