THE PYTCHLEY. 135^ 



said to be the only master of hounds who ever had a colonel as 

 his whip. In 18G6 occurred the great Waterloo run, which, 

 ■with the Billesdon Coplow, the Wendover, and the Greatwood 

 day with the Duke of Beaufort's, will in all probability be 

 handed down to posterity as one of the best ever recorded. 

 Mr. Thomson was capitally mounted, as from his weight he had 

 need to be ; and I remember once seeing in his stable six won- 

 derful weight-carriers, all very clever, and I believe all six years 

 old, amongst them being Iris, Rainbow, Fountain, Valeria, 

 and two more whose names I cannot now remember. Of 

 these, Iris and Eainbow have both been prize-winners ; and I 

 believe the former at one of Mr. Thomson's sales had a reserve 

 of a thousand placed on him, and at one time there was some 

 talk of his being purchased for the Prince of Wales. 



Mr. Thomson gave up the Pytchley in 1869, and shortly 

 afterwards a subscription was raised to present him with his 

 portrait ; and never, I believe, was more enthusiasm exhibited 

 than when the presentation was made at the George Hotel, 

 I^orthampton. He was taken on Iris, by the late Sir Francis 

 Grant, and so good was the likeness, that when one of his 

 favourite hounds saw the picture, she actually tried to leap on 

 it, as she was in the habit of doing to her master, and would 

 have done so but for the couples. 



Mr. F. A. Craven, of Whilton Lodge, succeeded Mr. Thomson, 

 and, with Dick Roake as huntsman, did very well for a couple of 

 years, though Roake was very unlucky as regards falls, and Mr. 

 Craven handled the horn himself a good part of the first season. 



Mr. R. C. ]^aylor, of Kelmarsh Hall, next became master ; 

 and, no doubt, did as well as could be expected in a situation 

 which probably he would never have taken unless it had been 

 to prevent the country becoming vacant, as there appeared to 

 be no chance of any one coming forward to take the post. At 

 this time Mr. George Watson started the IsTorth Pytcliley pack to 

 hunt the woodlands round Rockingham Forest, Geddington Chase, 

 and all the country bordering on Mr. Fitzwilliam's, which had 



