1 82 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



Rugby days "The Druid" wrote as follows: "When 

 I first went there, everything about it was calculated to 

 encourage a sporting taste. Lord Chesterfield was 

 living at Abington Abbey, near Northampton, and 

 hunting the Pytchley in a style I have never seen 

 approached since ; and many is the time I have rushed 

 off after second lesson in the generally visionary hope 

 of seeing his hounds draw Hillmorton Gorse. Mr. 

 Bradley's stag-hounds were also in full force." Steeple- 

 chasing, too, was just becoming all the rage, and 

 kindhearted Dr. Arnold, determined that " the fellows," 

 as he used to call them, should have no pretext to 

 disobey orders, dispensed with "calling over" one 

 afternoon, in order to let them see the fun which was 

 going on at Dunchurch. One result of this indulgence 

 was the pentameter : 



" Lottery primus erat, Nonna secunda fuit." 



Lottery, with Jem Mason up, being first, and The 

 Nun, with William MacDonough up, being second, in 

 the Dunchurch Steeplechase of 1840. So great was 

 the love of sport that the Rugby boys subscribed £1^ 

 to the Rugby Steeplechases. But the line had to be 

 drawn somewhere, and the doctor drew it by forbidding 

 boys to ride themselves. It came about in this way. 

 A boy in the schoolhouse offered to ride any other 

 boy over four miles of fair hunting country, and the 

 challenge was taken up by Mr. Uvedale Corbet, after- 

 wards a well-known Cheshire squire. The race was 

 run from Bilton Church to Newbold Steeple, and 

 resulted in a win for Mr. Corbet. This led to a resolu- 



