46 THE QUORN HUNT 



in 1867, a copy of the agreement is set out, but it is 

 unnecessary to reproduce it here. 



Of the details of Mr. Meynell's early hunting estab- 

 lishment and exploits we know but little. From 1791, 

 however, to 1800 we have a tolerably good record of the 

 sport enjoyed, since Joseph Jones, known as "Cork-legged 

 Jones," from his having, like the first Marquis of Angle- 

 sey, a cork leg, kept a diary which was published in the 

 year 18 16. The book was dedicated to the Duke of 

 Rutland. When Mr. Meynell first began to hunt the 

 country he used to take out an enormous number of 

 hounds ; but experience soon taught him that an un- 

 wieldy pack was more plague than profit in the field, so 

 he by degrees cut down the number until during his last 

 five-and-twenty years of mastership he is said never to 

 have taken out more than twenty couples, and often 

 fewer than that. To some of the runs of which we have 

 record no dates are given, but when the close of the 

 eighteenth century was within measurable distance it 

 was said that Mr. Meynell's hounds "had more good 

 runs than any pack in England," a statement which is 

 partly borne out by Jones's diary. Mr. Hawkes, the 

 author of a very scarce treatise called the " Meynellian 

 Science " (which gives an account of Mr. Meynell's 

 theories and practice), refers to two runs which fell to 

 the lot of Mr. Meynell's pack. One lasted for an hour 

 and twenty minutes, when, without having once checked, 

 hounds rolled over their fox by themselves. The 

 second run lasted for two hours and fifty minutes ; 

 hounds were never once cast, and they killed their fox 

 unaided. In November 1794, but whether earlier or 

 later than the runs above mentioned is uncertain, a 

 superlative day's sport was enjoyed in the shape of a 

 run of an hour and fifty minutes without a check. 

 They found in Ashby pastures, and after an hour they 

 changed on to the line of a fresh fox. It was not "an 



