CHAPTER III 



LORD SEFTON 



1800-1805 



LORD SEFTON will take my hounds at the end 

 j of the season, and I know he hopes to succeed 

 me in hunting the country." So runs a letter, dated the 

 19th March 1800, from Mr. Meynell to the Duke of 

 Rutland. The second Earl of Sefton was as o-ood as 

 his word. He bought Mr. Meynell's hounds en masse, 

 and added to them his own, with which he had been 

 hunting a part of Oxfordshire. Tom Wingfield and 

 the kennel-man were sent to bring them to Quorn, from 

 Combe Abbey, and on the return journey the cavalcade 

 passed through Leicester on the Good Friday of 1800, 

 just as the people were going to church, whereupon 

 Tom Wingfield remarked to his colleague, " Jack, we 

 shouldn't be here," Tom no doubt feeling that they were 

 creating something of a scandal, and probably setting 

 some people against fox-hunting. However, they reached 

 Quorn safely, and when the two packs were united the 

 kennels were full indeed. 



When Lord Sefton took over Mr. Meynell's hounds 

 he retained Jack Raven, the huntsman, as well. Raven, 

 though getting on in years, was still efficient ; while the 

 new master, whose hounds had been hunted by old 

 Stephen Goodall, did not care to discharge his old 

 huntsman, who had served him well and faithfully, so, as 

 he had so many hounds — rather over a hundred couples 



