170 The PytcJiley Hzmt, Past and Present. 



Meet must needs wear a more or less formidable aspect in 

 the eyes of Master and Huntsman ; but " nothiug is so bad 

 as it seems ;^^ and it is to be doubted if an accurate 

 return could be made of spoit spoiled by the actual 

 crowd on these occasions, whether it would not be a very 

 humble one. To half a dozen irrepressible individuals, 

 actuated partly by jealousy, partly by an insane desire to 

 be almost on the backs of the hounds, is to be attributed 

 all the harm that one hears so much of, as the conse- 

 quence of '^ the enormous crowd — -" 



" Vexation sore ofttimes he bore, 

 Strong language was in vain," 



miglit be inscribed on the head-stone of many a defunct 

 Huntsman ; but after all, the sum total of what he ^^ had 

 to go through," in getting a living was a small matter 

 compared to the heavy sloughs of trouble through which 

 nine out of ten in the same situation of life probably bad 

 to struggle. 



Occupying at first a temporary residence close to the 

 kennels, Captain Thomson soon after moved to Pitsford 

 Hall, the chosen abode, as has already appeared, of many 

 a Pytchley Master. Afterwards returning to Brixworth, 

 he made a home at the " Rookery," now tenanted by 

 Captain Carden. For one season he contented himself 

 with leaving the open country to be hunted by Charles 

 Payne, whilst he himself undertook the Woodlands ; but 

 this arrangement not proving satisfactory, Payne accepted 

 an offer to transfer his services to Sir Watkin W. Wynn, 

 and his master alone carried the horn. 



To hunt hounds and manage the Field at the same 

 time in such a country as the Pytchley is by no means a 



