i66 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



was the fact that the Master reached the end of it, 

 though it took him three horses to do it. Nor must 

 we forget the fine judgment and horsemanship of the 

 late Captain Mildmay Clerk, who rode through the 

 run on one horse and helped the Master to bring the 

 hounds home at night. 



Of Colonel Anstruther Thomson no better descrip- 

 tion has ever been penned than that written by his 

 daughter. " In Spring and early Autumn," she says, 

 " we always went to the Woodlands, for the Woodland 

 Pytchley had not then become a separate pack, and 

 I once more seem to see him long of leg and lithe of 

 limb on the raking chestnut mare and hear his cheery 

 voice drawing those great woods. And as I listen 

 to his view halloa, I feel a thrill run through me and 

 in fancy I see him striding down the broad grass 

 ride while the hounds fly to him from every point 

 and with an ' Over, over, over, over,' which simply 

 made one shiver, he cheers them over the ride, while 

 they swing to the right and crash into covert with 

 a glorious burst of music like a chime of silver bells."* 



The five seasons during which Colonel Anstruther 

 Thomson kept the hounds passed all too quickly for 

 the members of the hunt. In 1869 came Mr. Craven, 

 and he was followed by Mr. Naylor, after which Lord 

 Spencer took the hounds for the second time. In 

 the history of the Pytchley it has been the exception 

 when the mastership has been held by a landowner 

 of the country. Of the men who have ruled the 

 fortunes of the Pytchley few have been born or bred 

 in the county. Thus the mastership of Lord Spencer 

 has a peculiar importance in the history of the hunt 

 and even to the prosperity of hunting as a sport. 



There is always a possibility in those hunts which 



* " Sportwoman's Library " : " Fox-hunting," p. 16. 



