2, so The Pytchley Hunt, Past and Present. 



the Prime Minister resigned — a stranger filled his place 



— times grew worse — and even the lavish expenditure 



of a Sardanapalus — an hereditary legislator from the 



north — failed to provoke attendances at the Meets. 



Fine by degrees, and hideously less, on the fingers of 



one hand may easily be counted the regular frequenters of 



a Woodland Meet ; and amongst these there will not be a 



single red coat, except those of the Master and his men. 



Notwithstanding the wet blanket of a sparse attendance 



at the cover side, the country continues to be well and 



regularly hunted ; and though kills are not of frequent 



occurrence, it must not be forgotten that no fox is so 



difficult to bring to hand, as one born and bred in the 



forest. As is said of the Gipsy race : — 



" Try what you will ; do what you can ; 

 Nothing will whiten the black Zincan." 



The assertion that there is ''no rule without an excep- 

 tion^^ in reference to the warning '' Put not your trust in 

 keepers/' has a brilliant example in the case of the 

 well-known family of '' Fletcher/' head-gamekeepers to 

 his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch at Boughton Park. 

 Familiar to all North Northamptonshire sportsmen is the 

 picturesque cottage standing at the junction of a group 

 of noble glades in the woods — the peaceful home for some 

 generations of the family here referred to. Keepers bred 

 and born — but with an instinctive love for the chase in 

 any form — in them ''the fox'' finds no relentless enemy 

 save when hounds are on his track ; and the burden of 

 their sporting creed is a belief in fox as well as pheasant. 

 In their ears the familiar bark of the evening prowler is 

 well-nigh as welcome as the crow of perching cock, and 

 the sound of hound and horn little less tuneful than 



