SOME YORKSHIRE AND WESTERN MIDLAND HUNTS. 191 



" Lord Coventry founded the hunt (the Croome) in the 

 year 1887." That it (the Croome) was practically the same 

 hunt as the North Cotswold at the date I was writing about 

 I did not state ; but I said that the Worcestershire came quite 

 close to Malvern on the east side " between the Malvern hills 

 and the River Severn." This Mr. Webster confirms, saying: 

 " The Worcestershire hunted all the country now covered by 

 that pack and the Croome," and the boundary between the 

 Worcestershire and Ledbury, so far as Great Malvern is 

 concerned, was, I take it, the Worcester road, in which stands 

 the Belle Vue Hotel, where the Ledbury used to meet once 

 a year." He then goes on to state that Lord Coventry 

 brought his hounds to Croome in 1873 under an arrangement 

 with the Worcestershire, which in time became permanent. 

 Mr. Webster then explains how the North Ledbury is a 

 modern institution, subsidiary, he believes, to the present 

 pack, the country sill existing as a whole. This is generally 

 understood, and 1 did not allude to it, but merely said there 

 was no North Ledbury. Mr. Webster adds that the institu- 

 tion of the North Ledbury shows very clearly the enormous 

 increase in the popularity of foxhunting, and this particular 

 case I have frequently referred to in cither writings, when 

 attempting to show how greatly foxhunting increased between 

 my earliest days and the period before the war. The letter 

 then goes on to state that, whereas the Ledbury country was 

 hunted three days a week — not two, as I stated — in 1870, the 

 two packs between them at times have done eight days a week, 

 while Mr. Browne, of Hall Court, had his pack on the borders, 

 hunting country loaned from other hunts. Mr. Webster goes 

 further into the early history of the hunt, but I have not 

 space to give his letter in full, and may pass on to his remark 

 that " when Mr. Talbot retired in 1871 the country was at 

 a very low ebb, but Mr. Morrell came on the scene at a critical 

 moment, and was a glorious success." It was this success, 

 or at least a part of it, that I was lucky enough to come in 

 for, for I remember that, the sport shown wag uniformly good 

 whilst I was in that neighbourhood. Mr. Webster does not 

 remember Mr. Morrell hunting hounds on the silent system, 

 and says he took his hounds to a holloa. But as far as I 

 remember he and his men had whistles — for a time at all 



