48 The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



MEMOIKS 



OF 



WOODLAND MEMBERS, 



THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH. 



In speaking of the different owners of tliat large tract of 

 Avoodland country which reaches with intervals from 

 Stamford to Kettering, the first and foremost place must 

 be assigned to the Duke of Buccleuch_, of Boughton House, 

 — lord of thousands of broad acres, and sixty miles of 

 avenue to boot. For this ornament to his property his 

 Grace is indebted to an ancestor whose love of arbori- 

 culture earned for him the appropriate title of '^ John the 

 Planter/' The most noble of all butterflies, rarely to be 

 seen, and frequenting only the tops of the loftiest oaks, 

 is one known to lepidopterists as "^the Emperor of the 

 Woods.' No more suitable appellation could be found 

 for the ducal proprietor of this vast estate, a large pro- 

 portion of which consists of noble woodlands, than that 

 of the stately ^^ 'pafilio machaon" just referred to. 

 Eare visitants even of this lovely region, and frequenting 

 only the topmost summits of the life allotted to them, 

 '^ Emperor " Duke and " Emperor " Butterfly have much 

 in common — much at which their less highly favoured 

 neighbours have to sraze with envy and admiration. 

 Sportsmen by birth and inclination, the Dukes of 



