f oo The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present, [chap. m. 



feet, is still shown as " the leap of the Lord of the 

 Isles/' 



Lord Maidstone, hunting at that time as the guest of 

 his brother-member of the northern division of the 

 county, Colonel Maunsell of Thorpe Malsor, was a 

 brilliant rider, and one who did not easily brook having 

 to put up with a back seat in the huntiug- field, or else- 

 v/here. In the House of Commons, he undertook to 

 ''^bell the wild Irish cat/' Dan O'Connell, though it is 

 doubtful if on that occasion his lordship had not the best 

 of the encounter. Endowed with more than ordinary 

 ability, boasting the possession of some poetical powers, 

 a good classic, and not without statesmanlike instinct, 

 few young men ever entered political life giviug greater 

 promise than this young lord. Changing the sex, it may 

 truly be said on his career : '^ Mulier formosa superne, 

 desinit in piscem/' 



To the third noble lord, a true Northamptonshire 

 worthy, further reference will be made when the 

 '^ Woodlands " come for consideration. These were the 

 days when the country squire, however innocent of 

 racing proclivities, wore the coat known as a " Newmarket 

 cutaway ;" when sisters and mothers, and sometimes even 

 wives, embroidered the silk or velvet waistcoat for their 

 nearest and dearest. When the black satin *^ fall,'' set 

 off with two costly linked pins, adorned the manly bosom 

 of the dinner-swell, a blue coat with brass buttons and 

 velvet collar (a far more seemly garment than the " clero- 

 waiter " vestments that succeeded it) completed his 

 evening '^ get-up." The schoolboy in those days returned 

 to his books and his birch after the Christmas holidays 

 on the outside of a coach, with no further protection 



