THE QUORN. 109 



other liand, tlie Druid tells us that on Jack o'Lantern, and some 

 of his other fovourites, he would gallop along with a slack rein, 

 his whole attention absorbed in his hounds, and allow his horse 

 to take him over whatever obstacles came in his way, apparently 

 almost unconscious of their existence. In this way he was once 

 carried right into the middle of one of the ponds with which 

 Leicestershire fields abound. There is generally a slight fence 

 round three sides of them; this came in his horse's line, and he, 

 not aware that the squire was looking back for his hounds, and 

 accustomed neither to turn to the right or the left when any 

 obstacle was before him, instead of swerving as most men's 

 horses would have done, charged it, and jumped into the pond. 

 He was not so great a houndman as many less celebrated in 

 hunting annals, never fed them himself, and had few favourites, 

 but seemed to gain great mastery over them in the field ; and, 

 Avithout effort on his part, they became exceedingly attached to 

 him, so that, when the whips had taken them on to the fixture, 

 they would immediately break away on his approach, and no one 

 could stop them. He bought ]\Ir. Musters' pack when he took 

 the Quorn, and was very capricious as to size, first being all for 

 big ones, then reducing them to three and twenty inches, and, 

 finally, at Ted worth, in his later days, getting them bigger 

 again. He was rather a hound buyer than a hound breeder, 

 and could do as much with a scratch pack (as he showed at first 

 at Tedworth) as many could with a made one. Wlien I say 

 hound buyer, I do not mean that he depended on drafts from 

 other kennels, but that he rather bought his packs than bred 

 them, as many have done. Like Mr. Meynell, he had a yqtj cele- 

 brated little horse in Tom Thumb, scarcely fourteen three, but 

 he was a little big one ; Gift, whom no one could ride when in 

 Lord Mornington's hands, and who gave him to IMr. Smith, 

 was another first-rate one ; as was Ayston; also the Big Grey. 

 The celebrated Tom Edge, noted for his pointers and weight, 

 carriers, lived with him at Quorndon Hall ; and, heavy as he was, 

 when on Gayman or Banker he was not to be beaten for twenty 



