HUNTS AND THEIR HISTORY 155 



hunt would have addressed the Master in such terms ; 

 indeed, those were days when it was not etiquette 

 for any of the field to go before the Master or the 

 huntsman. What would have happened if they had 

 knocked either of them down or ridden over them, 

 as has certainly happened to later Masters and hunts- 

 men in this country, it is difficult to say. 



But while the Quorn and the Belvoir were going 

 on and carrying out to greater perfection the principles 

 of Meynell, the Pytchley were for a time to fall back 

 to more old-fashioned ways. When Lord Spencer 

 resigned he was followed for one season by Mr. BuUer 

 of Maidwell Hall, who had Stephen Goodall as his 

 huntsman. In 1798 Mr. John Warde became Master, 

 and under his regime everything was changed. The 

 new Master was a hunting man of the old school. 

 Mr. Warde had begun to hunt twenty-five years 

 before by keeping hounds at Rouen in Normandy, 

 and then he hunted a country which included most 

 of the present Bicester territories for twenty years 

 before he moved into Northamptonshire. Mr. Warde 

 bought twenty-four couple of hounds from Lord 

 Spencer. He lived at Boughton Hall, near North- 

 ampton, which place must not be confused with 

 Boughton House in the present Woodland Pytchley 

 country. In 1806 he moved to Great Harrowden, 

 and during his mastership he built kennels near 

 Wellingborough and also at Brigstock. These latter 

 were for the purpose of hunting the famous Pytchley 

 Woodlands in the Spring and Autumn. It is perhaps 

 not necessary to say that the present Woodland or 

 North Pytchley country was then part of the Pytchley 

 in practice, as it is still in theory. Mr. Warde, how- 

 ever, did not hunt quite the whole of the Pytchley 

 country, as Mr. Otway Cave kept a small pack of 



