5 o THE QUORN HUNT 



amongst the best of his time ; he mounted himself and 

 his man in the first style, and hunters were by no means 

 cheap even then, for we read of a farmer selling one for 

 four hundred guineas ! The author of a by no means bad 

 account of " A Day with Old Meynell " relates how, after 

 hounds had been running for three-quarters of an hour, 

 all those of the field who were up with the pack were led 

 by a pilot to a certain gateway by which alone exit from 

 that particular enclosure was to be obtained. Imagine 

 their disgust on discovering that the gate having been 

 broken down, probably in the course of some other run, 

 its place was supplied by a set of stout oak rails of the 

 noli me tangere stamp. The field was looking out for 

 Shufflers Bottom, when up came Mr. Meynell on his 

 favourite grey, well cleared the forbidding rails in his 

 stride, and left his field in the lurch. "Nimrod," too, 

 gives the old Squire a testimonial for his riding abilities, 

 for when he was out with the Ouorn during the time that 

 Lord Sefton had the hounds, he says that Mr. Meynell 

 rode a burst of half-an-hour in grand style, and with all 

 the enjoyment of a young man. Yet this was when Mr. 

 Meynell was getting on for seventy years of age ; but, 

 added Mr. Apperley, "he was always a hard rider." In 

 the time of Mr. Boothby and Mr. Meynell, however, and 

 for a good many years after that, Leicestershire was not 

 the difficult country to cross it now is ; for there were far 

 fewer fences. An old sportsman has left it on record that 

 in Mr. Meynell's earlier days a great deal of Leicester- 

 shire was so deep as almost to deserve the appellation 

 " boggy " ; but it carried a good scent, and a horse which 

 could stand up for twenty minutes when hounds really 

 ran was held to have distinguished himself. Before, 

 however, Mr. Meynell bade the world adieu, draining 

 had begun to improve the country from a riding point of 

 view. According to " Nimrod," Lord Forester used to 

 declare that there was a time when he could sit on his 



