$6 THE QUORN HUNT 



wide enclosures, its few large coverts, and the famous 

 men who have been connected with it, are among the 

 reasons of its celebrity and popularity. It is elsewhere 

 mentioned that, in olden days, Leicestershire was not 

 the stiffly fenced country it now is, and the Rev. J. 

 Curtis, who wrote a history of Leicestershire, remarked, 

 when speaking of hunting, that the fences offered no 

 danger, "being chiefly quicksets," not the most insig- 

 nificant obstacles to-day. 



Hunting, however, was evidently known to Leicester 

 men prior to the time of Mr. Boothby, for Throsley, 

 in his " History of Leicester," makes mention of an 

 " innocent holiday " which had been dying out since 

 1707, and which must therefore have been in full swing 

 years before. On Easter Monday it seems to have 

 been the custom for the Mayor and Corporation, clad 

 in their robes, to go to a certain close near the town 

 to see a travesty of hunting. A kind of gymkhana 

 took place in the morning, and then about noon the 

 aniseeded carcass of a dead cat was fastened by a string 

 to a horse's tail and dragged over the ground "in zigzag 

 directions." Half-an-hour later the hounds were laid 

 on, and "gave tongue in glorious concert," the people 

 on the hills shouted, and "the horsemen, dashing after 

 the hounds through foul passages and over fences, were 

 emulous of taking the lead over their fellows." A regular 

 cockney business truly, and worthy to rank with the 

 Epping Hunt on Easter Monday when Colonel Thornton 

 was Master of the Ceremonies, but in the eyes of the 

 historian " it was a scene, upon the whole, of joy, the 

 governing and the governed in the habits of freedom 

 enjoying together an innocent and recreative amuse- 

 ment, serving to unite them in the bonds of friendship 

 rather than embitter their days with discord and dis- 

 union." This is praise for the drag, indeed; but as the 

 cat was eventually dragged through the principal streets 



