68 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



These prices and descriptions mark the houses 

 in the pleasant villages round Market Harborough, at 

 Great Bowden, which is in fact a suburb, at Luben- 

 ham, hardly much more than a mile away, at Foxton, 

 one of the most pleasant of country villages, some 

 four miles out, at Farndon, Oxendon and Clipston, 

 all three in a famous district of the Pytchley, at 

 Medbourne, where the kennels of Mr. Fernie's hounds 

 are situated, or at the Langtons, all of which are 

 splendidly situated for hunting. The same may be 

 said of Burton Overy, Great Glen and Carlton 

 Curlieu, and many more. I mention these villages, 

 because most of them have hunting-boxes, large and 

 small, and because many people have a rooted objec- 

 tion to living in or even very near a town. The more 

 permanent our settlement, the more attractive are the 

 rural districts. 



But if the intending visitor does not care to take 

 a house, or if his visits are only occasional, then there 

 are hotels which have a long tradition of hunting 

 customers, and where the hunting man's wants are 

 well understood. The " Angel " is a comfortable old- 

 fashioned house which has been lately done up and 

 yet not spoilt. We do not, indeed, want a second- 

 rate imitation of a London caravanserai in a country 

 town, but an inn where we can take our ease in the 

 old way, and where there is plain food of the best 

 and no chilly, sodden imitations of second-class French 

 cookery. All the inns of Harborough are of the old 

 coaching sort, and the " Angel " and the " Three 

 Swans," which latter by the way has a most artistic 

 sign, both have good stabling. So have the " Pea- 

 cock " and the " Hind," and seldom do any of these 

 fail of occupants. 



There was, indeed, a time in the days of Mr. Sawyer 



