CHAP. I.] Scott — Disraeli — Pytchley Hall. 3 



clear that the Arabian mare had had enough of it. But as 

 the " Dizzy '^ of old could, according to this statement, 

 have given the great demagogue any amount of weight 

 across a country, so he, on his part, would have been 

 "lost^' by his opponent across the waters of a salmon 

 river. Had the unpretentious stream dividing the Lord- 

 ships of Pytchley and Isham been a rapid torrent, the 

 home of speckled trout or lordly salmon, instead of 

 only that of the pugnacious minnow and lowly " miller^s 

 thumb," a residence in the village for fishing purposes 

 might have taught the great piscator the correct pro- 

 nunciation of its name. Even in this respect Mr. 

 Bright was in good company, as Sir Walter Scott, in 

 describing the fox-hunting with Dandie Dinmont's 

 heterogeneous pack, says that a member of the '^^Pychley^^ 

 (leaving out the ^' t ") Hunt might have cast a super- 

 cilious look both on the equipment of the horsemen, and 

 the queer admixture of the hounds ! It is somewhat 

 singular that in the records of the village from whence 

 the Pytchley Hunt derives its title there is to be found, 

 in the times prior to those of William the Conqueror 

 the name of one ^^ Alwin the huntsman;" evidently a 

 personage of some importance, whose duty it was to 

 destroy the wild animals frequenting the adjacent 

 forests. Those who are fortunate enough to possess the 

 clever pen-and-ink sketch of the " Old Hall at Pytchley,'^ ^ 

 done by the late George Clark, schoolmaster of Scald- 

 well, will see that it was built in the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth by Sir Euseby Isham, and that the ancient 

 Lords of the Manor held it of the King on the condition 



^ A reduoed cony of tLis sketch forms one o£ the illustrations to the 

 present volume. — Ed. 



B 2 



