CHAP. III.] AIi\ John Chaworth Mttsters^ Master. 79 



worth and Market Harbro' now became inucli frequented 

 by hunting-visitors. The country at that time is de- 

 scribed as being tremendously fenced, the posts and 

 raihng of other days having given way to hedges which 

 never used to be cut. ^^ Scarcely a horse,"" wrote 

 '' Acteon/^ " can go a season or so in this country with- 

 out injury to, or partial loss of, sight ; and the rider has 

 so much to do to take care of his own eyes, that he cannot 

 look out as he ought to do for those of his horse over 

 these tremendously high and stiff quicks. Bullock-fences 

 and all the variety necessary to keep in cattle, stiff stiles, 

 locked gates, and wide brooks, bedeck the grass-country 

 in great profusion.'^ 



Taking up his quarters at Pitsford Hall, recently 

 vacated by Colonel Corbet of the Blues, a veteran sports- 

 man, Mr. Musters entered upon his duties, which, according 

 to '' Nimrod,^^ were scarcely equal to the nature of the 

 country or the work expected of it. ^' Few packs of 

 hounds will stand a close examination,^' says this great 

 critic : '^ Mr. Musters certainly will not. The bitches 

 are handsome, and of good stamp ; but the dog-hounds 

 are many of them past their prime, and as a lot, not so 

 sightly as they should be. A liberal draught is wanted; 

 and a large supply of three and four-year-old hounds is 

 required.'^ 



About this time the country was unusuall}^ full of 

 badgers, both in the woodlands and elsewhere ; so much 

 so, that while digging for a hunted fox in Brampton 

 Wood, one day after a good run, five were found in the 

 same drain. This very poor relation of the bear, so dis- 

 tant as scarcely to have the claim of kinship allowed 

 by the latter, had grown so scarce in the Brocklesby 



