200 The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



easy-going time for evil-doers with hounds as well as for 

 '^ dodgers ^^ and "short-cutters;^^ but all such rapidly 

 discovered that they had reckoned without their host^ or 

 rather without their Master. Captain Bruiser was 

 speedily admonished to modulate his bruising, and the 

 sly shirker was warned of the possible consequences of 

 his shirkiness. Whilst drawing a cover, the whole field 

 was directed to be gathered together in one place, and 

 few who hunted in those now distant days will forget 

 the grip in the field under Yelvertoft Field-side, beyond 

 which — no, not for the matter of an inch — was any 

 horseman allowed to pass until the fox was away. 

 Excellent in theory and full of promise was this edict of 

 the grip, but it ever seemed to fail in its performance. 

 A mistaken '^ view-holloa^' or a false line out of cover at 

 once scattered the impatient host of horsemen, and it 

 was then useless to try and reform the line and bring it 

 under subjection. 



Having the great advantage of commencing his career 

 as M.F.H. under the tuition of Charles Payn — the most 

 pleasant and keenest of Huntsmen — Lord Spencer 

 quickly mastered the details of kennel-management, and 

 so prepared himself for his second term of ofl&ce, when 

 he found much that required undoing, and still more that 

 wanted doing in the " P.H.^' surroundings. It was during 

 the period of his first Mastership — in 1863 — that Lord 

 Spencer was honoured with a visit from his Royal 

 Highness the Prince of Wales, who was pleased to seize 

 an opportunity of proving that England's future King 

 could hold his own after hounds over the big fences of 

 the Pytchley country. That he was able to do so was 

 shown in an afternoon gallop from Vanderplanks to 



