PAET 11. 



OF THE 



HISTOEY OF THE PYTCHLEY HUNT, 



IN 



MEMOIES OP THE MASTEES 



AFTEE THE RETIREMENT OF 



MR. GEORGE PAYNE. 



LORD ALFORD. 



1848. 



It was fortunate for the Pytchley Hunt and its 

 members^ that on the resignation of the Mastership of 

 Mr. Payne, a suitable successor should have been on the 

 spot, as it were, to fill the vacated situation. To follow 

 such a man as the ex-Squire of Sulby greatly enhanced 

 the responsibility attached to an office which of all others 

 required to be burdened with no extra weight. The 

 small boy who when desired by a school-inspector to give 

 him his idea of the meaning of "responsibility'^ replied, 

 " If I had only two buttons on my trousers, and one of 

 them was to come off, the whole responsibility would 

 rest on the other " must have been a lad " with all his 

 buttons on ; " no more just appreciation of the exact 

 significance of a term can well be imagined. To come 

 after a man like Mr. Payne, and to fail in any one of the 

 points which had made him so popular would have 



