^Nimrod ' 



subsequently, until within the last few years, of every pro- 

 prietor of the Quorndon or Quorn hounds, are especially 

 worthy his attention. The former are perhaps the most 

 extensive at the present day in England ; among the latter 

 is one holding twenty-eight horses, so arranged, that when 

 a spectator stands in the centre of it, his eye commands 

 each individual animal ; and being furnished with seats, 

 and lighted by powerful lamps, forms a high treat to the 

 eye of a sportsman on a winter's evening ; in addition to 

 this, there are several loose boxes and an exercise ride, as 

 it is called, under cover, for bad weather. The usual amount 

 of the Quorn establishment has been forty efficient hunters, 

 and from sixty to one hundred couple of hounds. Mr. 

 Osbaldeston, however, during his occupation of the country, 

 had a still larger kennel — and no wonder, for it was his 

 custom to turn out every day in the week, weather per- 

 mitting ; and, after Christmas, as the days increased in 

 length, he had often two packs out on the same day — a 

 circumstance before unheard of. This gentleman, however, 

 is insatiable in his passion for the chace ; and when we 

 think what fatigue he must have been inured to whilst 

 hunting his own hounds six days a week, in such a county 

 as Leicestershire, for a succession of seasons, we read with 

 less surprise his late Herculean feat of riding fifty four-mile 

 heats over Newmarket Heath, in the short space of eight 

 hours, and in the face of most tempestuous weather ! 



Four packs of foxhounds divide this far-famed county 

 of Leicester : namely, Mr. Forester's, late the Duke of 



143 



