THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY. x\ 



beginning in 1764, whilst for many years the Vavasours have 

 hekl a high reputation as sportsmen in sporting Yorl<:shire, 

 so that there is every reason to believe that things would 

 be managed in the then a[)proved fashion, and that sport 

 would be good. 



But it is equally certain that they would be, regarded 

 from a modern standpoint, a funny lot of hounds that 

 Mr. James Lane Fox took hold of when he commenced to 

 hunt the country. For in those days, especially in the 

 provinces, there was not much care taken in breeding 

 hounds, and even at a comparatively recent date many men 

 neither knew nor cared whether a hound was 'straight' or 

 not. In the middle of the last century, however, hunting 

 was to undergo a great change. To begin with, the features 

 of the country were gradually but surely changing ; wide 

 commons were enclosed and cultivated, and many big woods 

 were, for one reason or another, cut down. Consequently, 

 the gorse covert came more and more into request, though 

 it was long before it prevailed to any great e.xtent. That 

 a change was imminent in the hunting world was certain, 

 but it perhaps became an accomplished fact sooner than 

 would have been the case, owing to the ability with which 

 Mr. Hugo Meynell, polished gentleman and keen fo.x-hunter, 

 ruled over the destinies of the Ouorn. Mr. Husj:o Meynell 

 was certainly the father of modern fox-hunting. He was 

 the keenest of the keen about hound-breeding, and a great 

 authority on the subject, and to him was due not only the 

 improvement in breeding and kennel management, which 

 has been celebrated as ' The System of Meynell,' but he 

 was the man who introduced that straightforward ridintr 

 which adds such a charm to the sport when not indulged 

 in to an undue extent. Fortunately for Mr. James Lane Fox 

 he was a great personal friend of Mr. Meynell's, and he 

 qujckly saw that the system which his Leicestershire friend 



