Chapter XII 



THE SQUIRE OF ASWARBY AND THE 

 GREAT HUNTSMAN 



AMONG those who followed the Belvoir hounds there 

 was no more prominent or characteristic figure than 

 Sir Thomas Whichcote. For half a century he saw all 

 the sport which could be seen by a man who had know- 

 ledge of hunting and a fine aptitude for horsemanship to help 

 him. Unlike some good riders, he had no liking for a bad 

 horse, and he invariably rode the best that money could buy 

 or judgment select. Round the walls of the dining-room at 

 Aswarby Hall are a series of portraits by Ferneley of Sir 

 Thomas's favourite hunters. A very grand lot of horses they 

 must have been. Indeed, as I looked round the pictures in 

 the waning light of a November afternoon I was tempted to 

 wonder if any man had ever been so fortunate in his horses. 

 Certainly no one ever made better use of them. Sir Thomas 

 Whichcote was the seventh baronet, and was born on May 

 23rd, 1 81 3, at Stapleford Park. His mother was Lady 

 Sophia, third daughter of the fifth Earl of Harborough, and 

 the sixth and last earl, of whom I have already had occasion 

 to make mention, was his uncle. Sir Thomas was educated 

 at Eton, and when he left school obtained a commission in 

 the Grenadier Guards. After five years' soldiering he left 

 the service, and settled down to a country gentleman's life 

 on his estates at Aswarby, near Folkingham. He was an 

 excellent landlord — so good that he never had a farm vacant 

 even in the worst years of depression — a firm friend, a 

 helpful neighbour, and his life was a useful and a happy 



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