1 02 1 he Pytcliley Htuit^ Past and Present, [chap. iti. 



Riding full sixteen stone^ weight-carriers of the highest 

 class formed the stud of the Master; and rig'ht well did 

 he make his way across the big grass and through the 

 stiff bullfinches of the Pytchley coantry. 



One dry afternoon in March^ the hounds ran fast from 

 Langborough to Stoke Wood. Four men had the best 

 of it throughout^ Lord Chesterfield upon his favourite 

 " Marmion " being one. Whilst " Derry '^ and " Ginger ^* 

 Stubbs were struggling in the Loatland brook, Marmion 

 was sailing away, and safely landed with his welter- 

 weight on the other side ; and when the fox was run 

 into after a capital fifty minutes, the Master was there, 

 but no Huntsmen. On another occasion, when riding 

 Claxton, his sixteen stone did not prevent the Master 

 being well up in a clipping forty minutes from Berrydale 

 to Moulton. Running through Cottesbrooke '''cow- 

 pastures,'^ leaving Spratton on the right and by '• Merry 

 Tom,^' the hounds quitted Pitsford on the left^ crossed 

 Boughton Green, and ran into their fox a little beyond 

 Moulton village. In crossing Ci'eaton brook, " Derry ^■' 

 left both his stirrups behind him, but was well up at the 

 finish. Two unusually long runs at this time occurred 

 with a fox from Long Hold, who, on the first occasion, 

 beat his pursuers in the shades of evening at Earls Bar- 

 ton ; and, on the second, fairly outran them at Kettering. 

 Mr. Smith, Lord Chesterfield's successor, had a cut at 

 the same gallant fox in the following season, but unsuc- 

 cessfully, looking at it from Ms point of view. He fancied 

 that he subsequently had the mit^fortune to chop him in 

 the Lamport shrubberies. 



The secret of Lord Chesterfield beings able to live 

 with his hounds (bought from Mr. Rowland Errington 



