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1 8 The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



thing, but it is better tban notbing/^ This condition of 

 affairs did not continue long. The old coachman, whose 

 duty it was to drive the Hammock, had scarcely got well 

 into the swing of it ere he' suddenly found his occupation 

 gone. Calling to inquire one summer morning in 1875, 

 a friend learnt to his sorrow that during the night the 

 spirit of the gallant old soldier was gone. 



His own pen will best portray the kindly nature, the 

 keen sense of humour, and the unquenchable love of 

 hunting of this onetime highly honoured ^'Member of 

 the Pytchley Hunt."" Still writing from Surrey, in the 

 January of 1870, he says, ^^ I have, as you know, 

 completely disconnected myself with the ^P.H.,' to- 

 wards which, as long as I belonged to it, I endeavoured 

 to ^ do all that does become a man !' I greatly regret, 

 however, the loss you have all sustained in the death of 

 poor Jack Woodcock, as neat a rider, and as good a man 

 in every way as ever whipped to a pack of fox-hounds. 

 Your good father [the late Mr. John Nether cote] is a 

 gallant old English Gentleman ^ all of the olden time / 

 and I trust that he and his two nags will enjoy their full 

 allowance of hunting this season. How I should like to 

 be with you all at Waterloo to-morrow, if it were only to 

 see you start away — a glorious sight.^' 



CAPTAIN EIDDELL. 



At Bragborough Hall, Captain Riddell maintains a 

 stud, out of \shich any one in want of a thoroughly 

 dependable Hunter is likely to be suited. Many years 

 may have quenched, to a certain extent, in the gallant 



