Sir Rainald Knight ley, 295 



one of the most esteemed architects of the day. The 

 magnificent Gothic Hall, as designed by him, is fifty-four 

 feet long, forty-three feet high, and twenty-four feet in 

 width. At the south end of it may be seen the family 

 achievement, numbering no fewer than 343 quarter- 

 ings. 



No name — always excepting that of Spencer, which 

 appears at least five times as Masters of the ^^ P.H." — is 

 more closely associated with the past days of the Pytchley, 

 than that borne by the Lord of Fawsley. Sir Charles 

 Knightley, spoken of elsewhere in these pages, was for 

 many years the oldest member of the hunt, and was 

 greatly distinguished for his fine riding and keen love 

 for fox-hunting, and for a brief time was himself Master 

 of the Hounds. Under his care Badby Wood became a 

 stronghold for foxes ; and without it and the adjoining 

 covers, the Pytchley Saturdays would lose the better 

 part of their attractions. Had Sir Rainald attained the 

 same excellence in the saddle that he has done at the 

 whist- table — for it would be an easy task to count 

 those who would be considered his superiors at whist — 

 there would have been very few able to beat him across a 

 country in his younger days. Thirty years of parliamentary 

 life — a period upon which, when he looks back, he may 

 have the satisfaction of feeling that he has been through- 

 out, like his father before him, a consistent Tory of the old 

 school — have well entitled him to the respect of all. It 

 is to be hoped that many a winter may come and go 

 before he ceases altogether to appear at the cover-side, 

 and relinquish a sport in which both he and his father 

 have taken so conspicuous a part. 



