HUNTS AND THEIR HISTORY 131 



his head, and as a rule kept clear of the crowd, which 

 certainly was increased by his fame. He never 

 seemed to be riding desperately, but was always 

 with his hounds ; yet, being the fine horseman he 

 was, he must often have run risks and taken chances, 

 as his occasional severe falls show. But the fact 

 that he hunted hounds over Leicestershire for twenty- 

 six seasons, and without any diminution of nerve or 

 success, shows his marvellous ability. He had to 

 make his own pack, for the Craven hounds, which 

 were bought when Mr. Masters took his famous hounds 

 into the South Notts country, were hardly at first 

 suited to the Quorn. Never I think at any time 

 had he such hounds to hunt as fell to the lot of his 

 contemporaries of the Belvoir and the Cottesmore. 

 In one circumstance he was fortunate, for early in 

 his career some stout Scotch foxes were distributed 

 through the country, and for many seasons they and 

 their descendants gave great sport. 



I should say perhaps that his best time was in 

 the early 'seventies. It was not till nearly twenty 

 years later that I saw him, Lord Lonsdale then being 

 master. No master ever was more successful in 

 keeping an eager field off the hounds' backs than 

 Lord Lonsdale, who was himself a practical hunts- 

 man. But, on the whole, the time which men will 

 look back to is that when Mr. Coupland and Tom 

 Firr worked together in Leicestershire, and Brooksby 

 recorded their doings with all Nimrod's humorous 

 spirit and grace and with something more than 

 Nimrod's modesty. 



Of the Quorn country I have already written, and 

 what it was in the past it still is to-day. The present 

 master, who is the twenty-fourth in succession, is 

 Captain Burns-Hartopp, with Tom Bishopp, late of 



