334 ^^^^ Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



fall," so it might be said of this important cover_, " When 

 fails the Hemplow, the ' P.H/ will fail." 



From its lofty position it serves as a magnet to foxes 

 from all parts of the adjacent country upon which it looks 

 down ; and ^' Lilbourne," " Crick '^ and ^' Hilmorton " 

 GorseSj can tell of many a gallant fox, who, on being 

 roused by the voice of his natural enemy from his cosy 

 bed of sedge and bramble, has made the best of his way 

 to the shelter of the hills. To stand upon the crest of 

 these lofty heights, and look over the intervening- 

 grasses far away into the adjoining county, is a treat 

 almost sufficient in itself, but to encompass any part of 

 the same distance on a bold and accomplished hunter, 

 after hounds running breast-high, is to the true sports- 

 man, the skimming the cream of the highest enjoyment. 

 The importance to a Hunt of a property so situated 

 being in the hands of such a man as Mr. Topham — and 

 happily this is no less applicable to its present owner, 

 Mr. Simpson — one to whom the preservation of foxes was 

 an object only second to a successful conversion of his 

 clammy acres into loaves and fishes — is too manifest to 

 need dwelling upon. 



Some who read these pages will call to mind the 

 interest with which the new Lord of the Hemplow was 

 looked over on his first appearance with the ^^ P.H." A 

 glance was sufficient to show that the man must have 

 been made for the place. Mounted on an animal — long, 

 low, not particularly well-bred, but looking all over a 

 hunter — there was no room for any mistake as to the 

 new importation from the Brocklesby country being 

 ''every inch a sportsman,'^ and an acquisition to any 

 Hunt. 



