A HUNTING SQUABBLE 317 



on the boundaries of respective hunting countries, in which I 

 was called in to arbitrate, was that between Mr. Farquharson 

 and Mr. Drax. In this quarrel, Mr. Farquharson decidedly 

 threw the first stone, and was wrong ; I say this at the same 

 time that I bear for him the highest respect and esteem, as well 

 as entertain the sincere hope that he will continue to hunt his 

 country in the same liberal and effective way which he has done 

 for forty years or more, for a lengthened period yet to come. 

 He was in error thus : — He had hunted the old Charborough 

 counti-y, which might be termed a country within a country, 

 and which was given up by the then existing Mr. Drax Gros- 

 venor only until such time as one of the Drax family might 

 desire to reclaim it. There was no male heir, and Mr. Saw- 

 bridge, now Mr. Drax, man-ying his only daughter, representing 

 the male head of the family, claimed it in right of his wife. 

 The facts were on paper, so there was no gainsaying them ; and 

 there was no true ground of objection in the statement, that 

 the present Mr. Di-ax did not come within the meaning of the 

 terms under which the country came into Mi". Farquharson's 

 possession. Therefore the country, as in the olden time defined, 

 should have been at once rendered to the occupant of Char- 

 boi'ough Park. Instead of this — other pi'oprietors conceding 

 theirs — Mr. Farquharson retained his own land, in which was 

 situated a willow-bed, and drew the latter with his hounds. Mr. 

 Drax, the first stone thus thrown, purchased an extensive estate 

 in the heart of Mr. Farquharson's Vale country, called Holnest, 

 drew what covers there were on it, and made a number of 

 beautiful gorse covers, and thus entered into, and seized on, an 

 extensive territory of right belonging to Mr. Farquharson ; but 

 of which Mr. Farquharson had no just right to complain, because 

 he himself had been the first to infringe the rule laid down for 

 all hmiting countiies. It was then proposed — at this moment I 

 forget by whom — that Mr. Farquharson should restore to Mi*. 

 Drax the portion of the old Charborough country that had been 

 retained by him, if Mr. Drax would resign the Holnest covers ; 

 but this was not a fair proposition. Mr. Drax had been at great 



