152 The PytcJiley Htmt, Pa si and Present. 



and made his escape. Pillager died somewhat suddenly 

 of inflammation of the liver in his sixth season, to the 

 great regret of his numerous admirers. 



A case of wilful and genuine vulpecidism is usually 

 looked upon in a hunting-country as an act so base that 

 it never could have been perpetrated before. The offence, 

 possibly, may be considered co-eval with '^ original sin" ! 

 At the time of which we are speaking a vulpecide — forget- 

 ful of the warning ^' be sure your sin will find you out '' 

 — attended a Meet two or three days after a well proven 

 case of fox-murder. He had scarcely shown his face when 

 an honest and indignant yeoman ^^ went for him," and 

 compelled him to hide his shame by a hasty and prudent 

 retreat. 



Hoping to improve the breed of foxes, the new Master 

 turned down at Cottesbrooke six brace of the largest 

 Scotch ones he could procure. For two seasons not one 

 of these fresh importations was found, and Charles Payne 

 could never come across or even hear of more than half of 

 them. Nothing disappears more mysteriouslj^, or in every 

 way conduct themselves more disappointingly than foxes 

 imported from other districts. Shortly before giving up 

 the Pytchley country. Sir Bellingham Graham got a 

 quantity of foxes from Herring in the New Road, and 

 turned them down about Lamport, but they vanished to a 

 fox, and not one of them was found during the short 

 remainder of that season. 



It was during the Mastership of Lord Alford, that 

 Mr. H. Barraud painted the well-known and popular 

 picture of the '^ Meet at Crick." Out of forty-three 

 figures there represented ten only remain to tell the tale 

 of a '^ Crick Meet " in the reign of John Hume, Viscount 



