io8 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



he only go out on Tuesday and see Bradgate Park 

 or Bardon HiU, even though the sport would probably 

 be excellent, yet he might well think that the county 

 of Leicestershire was not all that it had been painted. 

 For Bardon Hill is 900 feet above the level of the 

 sea, and there is plenty of plough and woodland, as 

 I have already pointed out. But the man who lives 

 in Leicester or its suburbs and who makes the Quom 

 his own pack, following its fortunes for three or four 

 days each week of the season, as leisure and fortune 

 may permit, will sometimes feel that his lines are 

 in pleasant places as compared with other business 

 men who must train long distances or else not hunt 

 at all. The Leicester man can ride or drive to most 

 of the fixtures of his county hunt. The same remarks 

 are true of Northampton, where the Pytchley is 

 always within reach, and the Monday country lies 

 at his doors, while Badby Wood is within a fairly 

 easy distance. This is one of the best coverts in 

 this or any hunt, and ranks with Wardley, Owston 

 or Tilton as the home of stout foxes. The Monday 

 country of the Pytchley however, which lies to the 

 north of the town, is the peculiar territory of the 

 Northampton man and is possibly one of the most 

 sporting districts of Northamptonshire. Rougher 

 than some parts, it yet gives us hunting in a varied 

 form, the grass and plough, the woodland and the 

 gorse being mingled in a charming variety, and yield- 

 ing as a rule all the sport it promises. 



Far away in the comer of the Pytchley are two 

 places, Weedon and Daventry, which give the Grafton 

 and Bicester as alternatives, but which also enable 

 the sportsman to hunt with the Pytchley or to reach 

 the Warwickshire. Weedon is a place where soldiers 

 love to be stationed if they are fond of hunting, and 



