THE QUORN COUNTRY 5 



for there were then seven or eight days with hounds 

 instead of four. After hunting the country in excellent 

 style for about seven years, the Marquis of Hastings, 

 who loved nothing better than to pass his time at home 

 at his own place and amongst his own people, relin- 

 quished the hounds in 1842, and they then became a 

 subscription pack. The marquis lent the hounds and 

 kennels ; gave ^500 a year to the hunt, and said that 

 he would give more if necessary. The new master was 

 Mr. G. B. Story, of Lockington Hall, an excellent 

 sportsman, and a first-rate man to be at the head of a 

 hunt, being full of tact and energy. 



One reason why the Donington hounds were so 

 popular, at least for a time, was that neither Mr. Osbal- 

 deston, Lord Southampton, Sir Harry Goodricke, nor 

 Mr. Holyoake had hunted the country fairly. The 

 Melton clique, it was said, used their utmost endeavours 

 to induce the several masters to confine their operations 

 to the Melton district. The result was that on the 

 Donington side foxes were freely destroyed, and as one 

 man said, " Foxes which are seldom or never hunted are 

 a luxury which no one can afford in these hard times." 

 The Marquis of Hastings, of course, knew all about this 

 state of things, and it weighed with him not a little in 

 his desire to hunt the Donington country himself. About 

 a couple of years after the Marquis of Hastings resigned 

 the country, that is to say, in January 1844, he died ; and 

 for a short period after his death the country continued 

 to be hunted with something like the vigour which had 

 characterised the rule of the late master. A feeling of 

 respect to the memory of the Marquis of Hastings doubt- 

 less prompted sundry of the Donington sportsmen to 

 continue to lend a helping hand, while they also felt that 

 the Quorn, as then constituted, was not strong enough 

 to hunt their side of the country fairly. Sir H. Blane, 

 Mr. Sutton of Shardlow Hall, and Mr. Story did all that 



