1 62 The PytcJiley Hunt, Past and Present, 



hack^ wliich he fortunately came up witli on his way home, 

 Colonel Shirley, Mr. Edmunds of Gruilsboro^, Mr. El- 

 worthy of Brixworth, Charles Payne, and Jack Woodcock, 

 first Whip. 



Up to the Spratton road no one had gone better than 

 Mr. Fred. Yilliers ; but at this point, with three shoes off, 

 and a horse completely done up, he was fain to cry 

 " hold, enono-h,'' and hope to hear of, if he could not 

 witness, a kill. C. Payn was fortunate in having two of 

 his best horses out, ISTobbler and Firefly, and came 

 across the second in the very nick of time. At the 

 close of a career of fifty years with hounds he maintains 

 that this was the finest run he ever saw, and that the 

 *^ Waterloo day ^' is not to be mentioned with it in any 

 way. To this statement, inasmuch as it was far the 

 better scenting-day of the two — that during the two hours 

 and twenty-five minutes occupied in accomplishing the 

 twenty-six miles, there were two separate forty minutes 

 of the highest character — that the country (except about 

 Naseby) was mostly grass — and that the going was 

 particularly sound and good — the writer, who was 

 present on each occasion, gives his unqualified sanction. 



Two years subsequently to this, a letter to the Editor 

 of the Northamjpton Herald gives an admirable sketch 

 of the '' P.H/^ as it existed at that season — the last of 

 Lord Hopetoun^s Mastership. It ran as follows : — 



"The Pytchley Hounds. 



"Me. Editor, — Many a time during the present season 

 have I found myself at the cover side with the above- 

 named pack, an old and early love, to which I return 

 with all the greater zest from the long interval that has 



