1 8 The PytcJiley Hunt^ Past and Pi^esent. [chap. i. 



tbe limb become to dislocation that it would occasionally 

 get displaced if he chanced to throw up his arm in going 

 over a fence. In the cub-hnuting season he usually took 

 a cottage at Brigstock with Sir Charles Knightley, so 

 that he might watch the conduct of the new entries ; and 

 he thus acquired a thorough knowledge of hunting. 

 His stud usually consisted of about thirty horses, all of 

 high character, and the cost of his establishment was 

 seldom less than from 4500Z. to 5000/. per annum. In 

 the summer of 1810, writing from Ryde to his father, 

 with his thoughts, as usual, ever full of hunting, he says : 

 " Since you have been gone, I have been learning to 

 draw horses and hounds, in order to increase the number 

 of my Brigstock amusements ; and for the furtherance of 

 this purpose I have ordered George Bentley to show you 

 some studies of horses by Stubbs and Gilpin, and bring 

 them here with you. I was surprised and rather disap- 

 pointed at putting my shoulder out in opening a window, 

 but am somewhat comforted at finding it is a very likely 

 thing to do ; for in opening the same window with my 

 left arm, I perceived that the whole strain came from 

 the shoulder.'' 



After Lord Althorp's marriage with Miss Acklom, 

 heiress to the Wiseton estate in Nottinghamshire (who 

 died in her confinement in the following' year), he lived 

 for one year at Dallington Hall, but Spratton being 

 vacant he wished to move there, the position being more 

 favourable for hunting. In the spring of 1814, he thus 

 writes on this matter to his father : ^"^ I do not quite 

 agree with you on the relative merits of Dallington and 

 Spratton. I allow that the house at Dallington is the 

 best of tbe two, but Spratton is quite good enough. 



