CHAP. I.] Air. Warde, Maste)' — Lane Fa77tily. 1 1 



to propose tlie health of the new landlord, Lord 

 Wantage. Few then present will forget the impressive 

 manner in which the venerable and much respected 

 gentleman performed this duty, the feeling of his being 

 a link with the phase of the county history now passed 

 away adding in no slight degree to the interest of his 

 words and appearance. May the name that he bears 

 long survive to uphold the high character of the 

 Northamptonshire tenant-farmer, and remind future 

 generations of the old Pvtchley days. 



Mr. Warde, who from a photograph in the possession 

 of the writer (taken, of course, from a picture) in which 

 he is represented mounted on a well-bred horse, with 

 a favourite hound looking up in his face, must have 

 been a man of enormous bulk, and in every respect 

 one of the old-fashioned sort. He was remarkable for 

 the bone, size, and power of the hounds he bred ; which 

 he did on the principle that you may at pleasure 

 diminish the size and power of the animal you wish to 

 breed, but it is not easv to increase or even maintain a 

 standard that it has taken years to attain. It was 

 thought that his hounds always carried too much flesh ; 

 but he defended this on the score that it was essential 

 in a country where big woodlands had to be hunted. 

 In this view he was supported by the celebrated Tom 

 Rose, Huntsman to the grandfather of the present Duke 

 of Grafton. Such hounds would hardly be suited to the 

 present style of riding, when the ^' ladies ^^ are kept for 

 the '*big^' Meets, because tliey are smaller, more active 

 and more capable of escaping danger from the mob of 

 horsemen than the less wieldy " gentlemen.^'' The 

 former, too, have another advantage over the rival sex. 



