258 The PytcJiley Httnt, Past and Present. 



Middleton has distinguished himself. In the cricket-field 

 his services with bat and ball alike are such as to be 

 highly valued by the side on which he plays ; and when 

 "I Zingari " require a change of bowling, a ^^ head'' 

 ball from his hand is more likely than not to fall into the 

 grasp of some much expecting fieldsman, and so prove 

 fatal to the batter. As a judge of the game, he has few 

 superiors, and the management of a match could not well 

 be placed in better hands. 



On the list of its members the Pytchley Hunt may 

 be well satisfied to see the name of so fine a rider and 

 so good a sportsman as that of " Bay '^ Middleton, of 

 whom it may truthfully be said, — 



*' That the pace cannot stop, or the fences defeat 

 This rum 'un to follow, this bad 'un to beat." 



CAPTAIN MILDMAY CLERK. 

 We read in history of many a " man in a mask " — one 

 worn compulsorily, and much to the moral and physical 

 discomfort of the wearer. Rare, however, are the 

 instances in which it has been assumed voluntarily, and 

 for the sake of humouring a whim. Such, however, was 

 the case when Captain Clerk of Spratton Hall, one of 

 the kindest-hearted and most amiable of men, thought fit 

 to hide his good qualities under a cloak of apparent 

 moroseness and want of geniality. For twenty j-ears or 

 more, from 1847, no fig'ure was more familiar, no name 

 better known in mid-Northamptonshire than that of 

 " Clerk of Spratton." The associations of a cavalry 

 regiment having fostered a strong natural love for 

 horses and everything connected with hunting, he no 

 sooner obtained his troop than he severed the link which 



