CHAP. III.] G. Paynes First MastersJiip. 99 



hand of Time outrode lilm, and he is gone. May the 

 turf which he adorued while living sit lightly over his 

 head when dead ! ^' 



Pitsford Hall, usually the home of the Master of the 

 hounds, was at this time occupied by '^ Billy Russell '^ of 

 Brancepeth Castle, Durham, kaown to his friends from 

 his property in coal-mines, and equally from his atro- 

 rufous complexion, as the ^^ Black Diamond/^ With 

 " Ginger '^ Stubbs and Colonel Copeland as his guests, 

 the horses in his stables, all of the highest class, did not 

 stand idle. But he was not one of those who cared to 

 forge ahead on his own account ; and delicate health, 

 attributable principally to a total indifference to dietary 

 rules, soon led him to make his bow to the formidable 

 fences of Northamptonshire. On the resignation of Mr. 

 Wilkins, who afterwards assumed the name of " De 

 Winton,'' there was some difficulty in finding a successor, 

 but to the great delight, not only of his brother county- 

 squires but of all sportsmen, the man best suited for the 

 position in every way, George Payne of Sulby, consented 

 to undertake the Mastership. As he will be spoken of 

 at length at the time of his second assumption of the 

 reins of government, it will be sufficient here to say that 

 he held them for three years ; when, in 1838, he made 

 way for the Earl of Chesterfield. During this period — 

 one in which hard riding was much the fashion — the 

 three noble lords, Cardigan, Maidstone, and Macdonald 

 (Lord of the Isles), were a trio hard to catch and bad to 

 beat. The latter was only an occasional attendant attlio 

 Pytchley Meets; but, come when he might, he rarely 

 failed to leave his mark; and a bottom under Great 

 Harrowden, where his horse cleared thirty measured 



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