4 The PytcJiley Hinit, Past and Present, [chap. i. 



" to furnish dogs at their own cost to destroy the wolves, 

 foxes, polecats, and other vermin in the counties of 

 ^Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham.'' 

 The house and estate passed successively through the 

 families of Isham, Lane, Washbourne, and Knightley. It 

 then became the property of Mr. George Payne, who 

 pulled the house down in 1829, and afterwards sold the 

 estate to Mr. Jones Loyd, father to the late Lord Over- 

 stone, who left it to his daughter and her husband, 

 Lord and Lady Wantage, whose property it now is (1886). 

 The conditions upon which the Lords of the Manor of 

 Pytchley held their possessions seem to have been 

 sufficiently onerous ; but it must not be forgotten that 

 hunting in those days and hunting in the present differ 

 from each other in a far greater degree than hunting 

 with the Quorn or Pytchley, and hunting with trencher- 

 fed packs on the Cumberland Hills, do now. 



At the period when wolves and other beasts of prey 

 inhabited the forests which covered the greater surface 

 of the island, the one object of the hunter was to kill and 

 destroy in the interest of the occupant of the land. 

 The wolf of that day had not been educated up to lying 

 down with the lamb, unless he was inside him ; and the 

 ravages among flocks and herds by wild animals greatly 

 added to the difficulties of the agriculturist. He who 

 now kills a fox, otherwise than by the aid of hounds 

 (unless indeed by accident), earns for himself the oppro- 

 brious name of ^^ Vulpicide,'^ and is likely to become a 

 *^ Pariah '' in society and a ^' Boycottee.'^ In the far-off 

 days of which we are speaking, the Lupicide and the 

 fox-killer were looked upon as public benefactors, and 

 ^Torthy of all commendation. An ^^ unsportsmanlike " 



