Col. AnstrtUher Thomson^ s Maste^'ship. 169 



With Charles Payne, Dick Eoake, and Tom Firr, as 

 assistants, the Pytchley team for 1864 presented a galaxy 

 of hunting talent such as few countries could boast ; and 

 it was clear tbat if sport were lacking, the fault could 

 only rest with absence of " scent/^ 



Accustomed to large fields when Master of the- Ather- 

 stone, Captain Thomson was little daunted by the 

 Pytchley " Wednesdays," a drawback to which, as Whyte 

 Melville shows in his letter, too much importance has 

 ever been attributed as a sport-spoiler. Griven a scent 

 — a real run-any- way scent — and in four minutes or less 

 after a fox has broken cover, five hundred horsemen 

 wdll in no way affect the character of a run. With a 

 bad scent or greatly-dodging fox, numbers undoubt- 

 edly tell injuriously. The less bold hounds are apt to 

 get kicked or ridden over, and the field persist in creep- 

 ing up to the Huntsman, and leave him little, if any, 

 room for his cast on either side. With a scent such as 

 here described, sport could not be expected, even if the 

 Huntsman, Whips and Master were the only people out ; 

 and I still cliug to the view that a large Field is no great 

 misfortune so far as sport is conoerned. The damage 

 done is quite another matter ; and so long as Thomas 

 CarlyWs two descriptions of fools continue to infest the 

 laud, nothing will avail to prevent it. 



The open secret of the Pytchley Wednesday Meets 

 affects only the subscription-list, and a word of remon- 

 strance from the Master or any well-known member 

 of the Hunt, when injury is being committed unneces- 

 sarily, will be of more avail than any amount of non- 

 publicity and of non-advertising. 



The entourage of a Midland Wednesday at a crack 



