156 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



hounds at Stanford Park, with which he hunted the 

 Lutterworth side. 



Mr. Warde was a heavy man. He rode twenty- two 

 stone and hked big hounds. His famous Solyman 

 was twenty-eight inches in height. At no time were 

 these probably a very fast pack, and towards the 

 end of his hunting career he had them purposely 

 kept big in condition to reduce the pace. Never- 

 theless he showed very good sport, and the hounds 

 were very steady on the line, as the following may 

 show. They found on February 3, 1802, in Marston 

 Wood, a covert which is about three or four miles 

 from Market Harborough. They ran down the hill 

 into the valley, then, turning to the left, they ran 

 through Theddingworth to the Laughton Hills, which 

 the fox threaded, and, turning to the right by Foxton 

 Windmill, went on over the valley to Gumley. Be- 

 yond that hounds had a view of their fox, and ran 

 with Saddington on the left, past where the reservoir 

 is now, up the steep hill into Kibworth, then with 

 a left-hand turn to Wistow and by way of Stoughton, 

 Stretton, Norton by Galley and Frisby, up to Botany 

 Bay. Then, very slowly, they picked out the line 

 to Cold Newton and finished by killing their fox 

 close to Tilton village after a run of four hours and a 

 quarter, in the course of which they ran through 

 twenty-six parishes without going into any covert. 

 The distance was said at the time to be twenty-seven 

 miles, and I leave those who know the country to 

 trace out the line on the map and to decide for them- 

 selves how far it was. Sir Henry Warde, brother 

 of the Master, Sir Andrew Barnard, Robert Forfeit, 

 the huntsman, and James Butter, the whipper-in, 

 were the only men up at the finish. The hounds lay 

 out that night at the Quorn kennels at Great Bowden 



