HUNTS AND THEIR HISTORY 157 



Inn, Mr. Meynell remarking that it was the most 

 wonderful day's sport ever known with any hounds. 



The following is an account of this run in a letter 

 from a contemporary to his father : — 



" The horses and I arrived here quite safely. Jim 

 brought them in well, and with a continuance of the 

 same good conduct is like to do well. Tell Sampson 

 (their huntsman) that I said so. I hope you and the 

 hounds are well and are having sport the same as 

 we are having here. I like this country very much. 

 The fences are built very strong ; often you meet 

 with a rail and a growing hedge and then another 

 rail. These are to protect the hedges from the cattle 

 which are very many here, for most of the farms are 

 kept for grazing farms and are held by very rich 

 men. They ride fine horses, and it is no uncommon 

 thing to see them take two or three gates in a line. 



" The members of the hunt are a very gentlemanly 

 set but they do ride jealous. It is often a regular 

 steeplechase, not minding much about the hounds. 

 This is particularly the case when some of the men 

 from the Quorn and the Pytchley meet. These two 

 hunts adjoin, in fact the road from this town to 

 Lutterworth is the boundary between the two. Of 

 course we often cross over as he did in the great run 

 I am going to tell you of, that we had the other day. 

 Mr. John Warde is the master of the Pytchley Hunt. 

 He is a very big man, weighing, they say, more than 

 twenty stone. How he ever buys horses to carry 

 him is a puzzle to me, but he does. Bob Forfeit is 

 the huntsman and a very intelligent, clever servant. 

 The hounds are, like their master, very big, more 

 like mastiffs than fox-hounds, but they can hunt a 

 fox, though they are not so fast as Mr. Assheton 

 Smith's that hunt the Leicestershire country. Well, 



