FAMOUS MASTERS 83 



SIR WATKIN WILLIAMS WYNN 



There are many families in which M.F.H. honours 

 may be regarded as hereditary. The Wynn family is 

 certainly one of these, and the present head of the 

 family ably keeps up the tradition. But it is of his 

 predecessor, the sixth baronet, who was born in 1820, 

 and succeeded to the title in 1840, that I wish now to 

 write. Not only was he the largest hereditary landlord 

 in Wales, but he was an hereditary M.F.H., for his 

 great-grandfather was as celebrated for his love of sport 

 as he was for his Jacobite opinions ; and when, in 1745, 

 he was compelled to quit Wales, he found sporting 

 hospitality with the Duke of Beaufort at Badminton. 



At the early age of twenty-three Sir Watkin revived 

 the pack which his father had given up in 1837. Two 

 years before he had purchased the hounds of Mr. 

 Leche, of Sarden Park, a member of one of the oldest 

 fox-hunting families in Cheshire, and an intimate 

 sporting friend of the Wynns. Mr. Attye had hunted 

 the Wynnstay country from Lightwood Hall, a farm 

 of Sir Watkin's in the centre of the country, for the 

 two seasons, during which the Baronet was detained 

 in London by his military duties. In 1843 Sir Watkin 

 bought the Perthshire from Mr. Grant, of Kilgraston, 

 the eldest brother of Mr. Frank Grant, the celebrated 

 artist, and erected new kennels at Wynnstay, which 

 for space, modern improvements, and conveniences 

 were surpassed by none. Sir Watkin never lost an 



