28 THE QUORN HUNT 



to assume that Mr. Meynell's hounds were crossed with 

 those of Lord Sefton ; but we have it on the authority 

 of " The Druid " that Mr. John Warde would never 

 send to Mr. Meynell's kennel for new blood. He by 

 some means obtained a couple of Mr. Meynell's cast- 

 offs, named them Oueer'em and Quornite, and used to 

 show them to his friends as the "sort of things the 

 Ouorn people hunt foxes with." At any rate, whatever 

 the Ouorn pack was like in 1805, when Lord Sefton gave 

 up the country after a five years' reign, so it passed 

 into the hands of Lord Foley, his successor, who held 

 the country for a single season only, and by that time, 

 by whose fault one cannot tell, the pack had very much 

 deteriorated, and were dispersed, not being good enough 

 for his successor, Mr Assheton Smith, to take to. Mr. 

 Musters gave up the Nottinghamshire country in 1806, 

 when Mr. Smith took the Quorn, so the latter gave the 

 former a thousand guineas for his hounds ; he obtained 

 some from Belvoir and other kennels, and began his 

 eleven years' mastership. On his resignation he took 

 his hounds and horses into Lincolnshire, and Mr. Osbal- 

 deston, on becoming the next master of the Quorn, 

 brought his own ready-made pack from the Atherstone 

 country. Sir Bellingham Graham had to find some of 

 his own hounds though he bought a few from his pre- 

 decessor, who took the rest away when he went into 

 Hampshire, and brought them back in a couple of 

 years when he returned to Ouorn, and then after a 

 few years' rule he took away the pick of the pack to 

 succeed Mr. Musters in the Pytchley country. 



Mr. Osbaldeston left a few old and blemished hounds, 

 and they were not even sound. To these Lord South- 

 ampton added some from Mr. Nicholls, who then hunted 

 the New Forest, but they were mostly suffering from 

 kennel lameness ; a few came from Mr. Musters, and a 

 few from Belvoir. The next step was to sell or make 



