i8o FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



fore I may pass it over here, merely noting that it is 

 well worth a visit. 



As to the Edgehill country, in 1809 from Epwell 

 White House, in this country, took place the run 

 which was the subject of a copy of verses by Serjeant 

 Goulburn which were as famous in Warwickshire as 

 Mr. Lowth's Billesdon Coplow poem was in Leicester- 

 shire. Warwickshire, in most of the districts where 

 my readers are likely to meet the hounds, does not 

 differ greatly from the Pytchley. The fences of 

 Warwickshire in the grass country will have nothing 

 strange about them to the rider from Leicestershire 

 or Northamptonshire : thorn fences, stout and thick, 

 with a ditch on one side, and a few oxers, which 

 become rarer as time goes on. The stiles are of the 

 upright, uncompromising sort familiar to us all over 

 the grass countries. The rails with which the fences 

 are mended are stiff and strong. There are plenty 

 of brooks ; indeed we have already seen that the 

 presence of these daunted the redoubtable Mr Sawyer. 

 They are not wide as a rule, but they must be jumped, 

 and are quite sufficient to stop some horses and 

 many men. 



The founder of the Warwickshire Hunt is generally 

 considered to have been Mr. Corbet, whose name 

 continually meets us in the early history of hunting. 

 He was the master of the renowned Will Barrow and 

 the owner of the famous fox-hound Trojan, who be- 

 came a toast in his own time and a myth in ours. 

 Mr. Corbet was a model Master of hounds. Always 

 polite and courteous, we are told that " his popularity 

 knew no bounds. The gentlemen of the hunt honoured 

 him, the yeomen almost adored him." He was 

 indeed full of consideration for the latter, and would 

 never meet in his best country on a Saturday, because 



