FAMOUS MASTERS 47 



with the result that young horses were shown off at 

 covert-side, and taken home immediately after they 

 had come under the eye of the M.F.H. Owing to his 

 good nature, Lord Middleton often fell a victim to 

 unscrupulous owners, so that he was compelled to 

 abolish the race which he had organised for the benefit 

 of the farmers. 



But, in addition to his well-deserved popularity with 

 the farmers. Lord Middleton was supported by men 

 whose names are household words in every fox- 

 hunting establishment. Most prominent amongst 

 these were Lord Willoughby de Broke, the Earl of 

 Aylesford, of Packington Hall, the Earl of Warwick, 

 Sir John Mordaunt, Sir E. Smythe, Sir J. Shelley, Lord 

 Villiers, iMr. Holbeck, of Farnborough, General 

 Williams, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Featherstone, Mr. Cattell, 

 Mr. H. Robins, Mr. T. Handley, Lord Alvanley, Sir 

 Grey Skipwith, Mr. Stubbs, of Beckbury, Shropshire, 

 Mr. Boycott, of Rudge, Shropshire (afterwards M.F.H. 

 of the Albrighton from 1825 to 1830), and Mr. Edward 

 Goulburn. 



But it is as a horseman and field-master that Lord 

 Middleton is entitled to be numbered amongst the 

 giants of the hunting-field. As M.F.H. his reign is 

 notable amongst Warwickshire sportsmen, because he 

 gave up the Meriden and Coombe and Dunchurch 

 sides of the country, since it was impossible for one 

 pack of hounds to hunt the whole of the country, for it 

 was forty miles long by twenty miles wide, and com- 

 prised what has been since 1853 the North Warwick- 

 shire country. It will thus be seen that Lord Middleton 



