2 4 THE QUORN HUNT 



of the country, and from all these and, at times, other 

 places being visited by the hounds, has no doubt been 

 suggested the idea that it was one of Mr. Meynell's 

 fancies that his hounds should never have more than a 

 few miles to go to covert on a hunting day, and that he 

 always sent them by road twenty-four hours in advance. 

 Whether Mr. Meynell did so, or whether, like the earlier 

 Dukes of Beaufort and other masters of older time, he went 

 for a week or two at a stretch to some outlying district, 

 I am not able to say, for there is to be found no evidence 

 one way or the other : the one fact remains that several 

 kennels were utilised during Mr. Meynell's mastership. 



Quornclon Hall, from the time of the Ouorn's first 

 master, came to be regarded as a sort of official residence 

 until Lord Southampton's advent, since Lords Sefton 

 and Foley, Mr. Assheton Smith, Mr. Osbaldeston, and 

 Sir Bellingham Graham bought the place as they bought 

 the hunt stock and fixtures. Lord Southampton, follow- 

 ing the example of his predecessors, took up his abode 

 at Quorndon in 1827 ; but left it for Belgrave Hall, near 

 Leicester, in 1829 or 1830, while at the same time he 

 built new kennels in Humberstone Gate, Leicester. But 

 these do not appear to have been very well arranged or 

 convenient premises, and were speedily vacated by Sir 

 Harry Goodricke (the next in succession), who, regarding 

 Thrussington as more central than either Leicester or 

 Quorndon, put up new kennels there. Sir Harry's pre- 

 mature death, however, necessitated the choice of another 

 master, and in 1838, when the Thrussington kennels were 

 scarcely seven years old, they were advertised for sale 

 and were pulled down not long afterwards. Another 

 master who did not fancy the Quorndon kennels was 

 Lord Suffield, who signalised the beginning of his brief 

 reign by building new kennels at Billesdon : 1 but they 



1 The design for these kennels is said to have been furnished by Mr. 

 Thomas (not Assheton) Smith, sometime master of the Hambledon, Craven, 

 and Pytchley hounds. In describing the new kennels, a writer of the time 



