314 T^J^^ Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present, 



rapid Journeys across the Pampas and among tlie Andes." 

 Upon bis return to England he held the post of Assistant 

 Poor-Law Commissioner in Kent, and in 1835 was sent 

 at a moment's notice to Upper Canada to quell the for- 

 midable rebellion of the Frenchman, Papineau — the pre- 

 cursor of Louis Riel, so lately hanged for high treason 

 against the government of the Dominion. This, with 

 the aid of the Militia, and under the greatest difficulties, 

 he not only accomplished, but he repelled the invasion of 

 large bodies of sympathizers from the United States. 

 For these services he received the thanks of the Legisla- 

 tures of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Upper Canada 

 — was created a Baronet in 1838, and afterwards made a 

 Privy Councillor. On retiring from public life, Sir 

 Francis determined to devote some of the best of his re- 

 maining years to the enjoyment of a sport which was the 

 one great passion of his life. To him the horse and hound 

 were the noblest of animals — and after them the fox ! 

 '^ To the latter," he would often say laughingly, ^^ he 

 owed a debt of gratitude that nothing could repay ! " He 

 would then comment on the anomaly of taking a pleasure 

 in trying to kill your best friend, and feeling a disap- 

 pointment in failing to do so. Not one of the forty 

 Pytchley men depicted in the '^ Meet at Crick " was 

 so genuine a devotee to hunting as the old Officer of 

 Engineers. Not, as was the case with Lord Althorp, 

 for the sake of seeing hounds hunt, but from an innate 

 passion for riding. There was no day in his life — until 

 in his 82nd year he was compelled to lay by — Sundays 

 included, upon which he did not take a ride if the 

 ground permitted. Though not able to ride horses of 

 any great value, nothing stopped him ; and being light of 



