8 The PytcJiley Himt, Past and Present, [chap. i. 



of the huntsmen-heroes of the past. Born at Courteen- 

 hall, of parents in whose eyes there was '^ nothing like 

 leather," he was brought up to make rather than wear a 

 top-boot ; but a natural love for all things pertaining to 

 sport soon got him among hounds and horses ; and 

 advancing step by step he succeeded in attaining the 

 pinnacle of his ambition by becoming Huntsman to the 

 famous Pytchley Hounds. In the well-known picture by 

 Mr. Loraine Smith, of Enderby Hall, Knight is portrayed 

 as finishing a run on a cart-horse taken out of a plough 

 team, his own animal being completely knocked u"p. In 

 a second picture by the same skilful hand, he is depicted 

 jumping a fence beneath the overhanging bough of a 

 tree, with head bowed downwards and both legs over his 

 horse's neck. The reason of his appearing in this some- 

 what unusual attitude was, that one day at the Meet a 

 stranger said to him, '' Knight, I've heard a good deal of 

 your riding, but if you beat me to-day, I will give you 

 the horse I am on.^' '^ All right, sir,^' said Knight, " we 

 shall see." During the run they came to a fence, the 

 only jumpable place in which w^as under a tree, the 

 branches of which overhung, and scarcely left space 

 sufficient for a man and horse to get through. Bending 

 his head and throwing his legs over his animal's neck, Dick 

 went through the opening like a clow^n through a drum. 

 This w^as too much for the stranger, who preferred losing 

 his horse to risking his neck by following, and honourably 

 carried out what he had undertaken to do, by sending 

 his steed to the more plucky horseman on the following 

 morning. Knight was famous for possessing a voice so 

 powerful that a well-known sportsman used to declare 

 that from his house at Wellingborough he could on a 



