172 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



successive Masters of the North Pytchley, and he 

 himself hunts them in 1903-4. The Woodland 

 Pytchley has a separate establishment and is inde- 

 pendent of the parent hunt, save that the Master of 

 the Pytchley Hunt nominates the Master of the 

 Woodland pack when a vacancy occurs and retains 

 the right to use some of the coverts during the cub- 

 hunting season. 



The Woodlands are, as Whyte-Melville said, the 

 best in England, and, once outside them, the country 

 is as good a flying country as can be found anywhere. 

 There are small fields as a rule, for woodland hunt- 

 ing does not commend itself to every one, least of all 

 perhaps to those who come to Market Harborough 

 to hunt over the grass. 



VII. The Atherstone 



Of aU the countries that we have written of none 

 has more advantages than the Atherstone. Situ- 

 ated partly in Leicestershire and partly in Warwick- 

 shire, this country has been sometimes reckoned to 

 belong to the Shires and sometimes to the provinces. 

 But I have no hesitation in ranking it with the 

 former, to which it belongs alike by its history, its 

 situation, and the fact that it is accessible from the 

 three centres, Rugby, Market Harborough and 

 Leicester. Indeed, without the Atherstone the claim 

 of Rugby to be a first-rate hunting centre would 

 be a small one. We have seen how that town looks 

 to the Atherstone Friday as one of its great attractions. 



The Atherstone Hunt was in reality the creation 

 of Mr. Osbaldeston ; not that the country now 



