264 The Pytchley Httnt, Past and Present, 



future author of " Market Harborough ^' as his daily food. 

 A few years at Eton or Harrow, to be followed by a terra 

 of service in some ^^ crack " regiment is the usual lot of 

 the elder son, and the young Scotch scion of an ancient 

 race followed the routine chalked out for a majority of 

 those in the same position with, himself. Entering* the 

 Guards as soon as he quitted school, the ex-Etonian 

 evinced a more than ordinary aptitude for military life» 

 and devoted himself with ardour to hia regimental 

 duties, as also to the attractions of a London life, 

 where he rapidly established a reputation for repartee 

 and conversational power, which caused the brilliancy 

 of his writings a little later on to be received by those 

 who knew him without any feelings of surprise. 



Marrying the second daughter of Lord Bateman of 

 Kelmarsh Hall in the county of Northampton, he quitted 

 the army and settled down at Boughton, a little village 

 three miles from the Pytchley kennels, and about as 

 many from the county town. In the pages of " Holm- 

 by House," Boughton is often referred to as the 

 seat of Lord Strafford, to which Charles I. would fre- 

 quently ride of an afternoon from Holdenby \aUas 

 Holmby], stopping on his road to fish in the Nene at 

 Brampton ; and it was here that the author drew his 

 inspiration for the various scenes and characters of the 

 most popular of all his novels. 



The two great objects of his life at this time being as 

 he said of himself, *'the pig-skin and the pen," his days 

 were devoted to hunting, and his evenings to literary 

 work. The evening's employment in no way interfered 

 with the full enjoyment of the sport to which he was so 

 ardently attached ; though later on, after the " Argosy " 



