CHAP. I,] Good Riders and Runs — Dandies. 1 9 



The neiglibourhood at Spratton is better tlian the other,- 

 the roads better, and the country, if anything, rather 

 prettier. The distance to ride from Althorp is nothing, 

 and Esther (Lady Althorp) will not want to go back- 

 wards and forwards often in a carriage. When to these 

 considerations I add that it is in nearly the best pos- 

 sible situation for hunting both the Pytchley and 

 Althorp countries, I cannot help preferring it. to the 

 other," In a letter dated Spratton, March 31st, 1815, 

 he says : *^ We have had the most extraordinary sport 

 I ever saw in my life. On Tuesday, after a burst from 

 Blueberries of forty minutes to ground beyond Brix- 

 worth, we found at three o'clock at Pursers Hills, and 

 after a ring by Maidwell and Scotland Wood, went 

 straight away and killed our fox beyond Little Harrow- 

 den in two hours. Yesterday we ran from Sywell Wood 

 to Pip well, and killed there in an hour and a half '^ The 

 shoulder-trouble continued, for we find in a letter 

 written from Ecton to his father, two years after the 

 above : ^' I had a severe fall yesterday and put my 

 shoulder out again, I was copiously blooded and am 

 rather weak and stiff to-day," One of Lord Althorp^ s 

 best runs was from Pursers Hills, by Hothorp, to 

 Wistow in Leicestershire, where the fox was killed ; the 

 first fifty minutes being without a check. Twice in one 

 year a fox found at Crick was killed in Badby Wood ; 

 and on another occasion, after a brilliant hour and 

 seventeen minutes from the same covert, by Lilbourne, 

 Hempton, Naseby and Sibbertoft, the death took place 

 at Marston village. Besides the Master himself, amongst 

 the many who rode well to hounds, were Sir Charles 

 Knightley, who will be referred to later on ; Mr. Elwcs 



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