SIR BELLINGHAM GRAHAM 117 



It is, however, with the Ouorn only that I am now 

 concerned. Sir Bellingham Graham's reputation had so 

 far preceded him into Leicestershire that it was taken 

 for granted he would hunt the country as well as it could 

 be hunted, and in proof of this he received the largest 

 subscription ever given to a master of the Quorn, 

 namely, considerably over four thousand a year. Soon 

 after Mr. Osbaldeston's accident with Lord Anson's 

 hounds, the former wrote to the members of the Hunt, 

 through the medium of the local paper, to say that he 

 was compelled to give up the country ; and Sir Belling- 

 ham wrote to the same journal offering himself as the 

 Squire's successor, an offer which was readily accepted. 



Sir Bellingham Graham, a fine horseman, is said to 

 have had in the Ouorn stables the best collection of good 

 big horses ever seen, not even excepting Lord Sefton's, 

 and no one ever hunted the country in more liberal style. 

 During the two seasons he ruled Leicestershire there 

 was not, it was said, a single instance of his not being 

 with hounds, which was the more remarkable because 

 when he first came he did not know the country ; while 

 in his first season the long-continued rain had made the 

 country uncommonly deep and holding. Sir Bellingham 

 was a heavy weight, but he went with the best, and his 

 straight riding brought him to grief at the beginning of 

 his second season, for while hunting his hounds on 

 Boxing Day 1822, he rode at a gate — or at an ox-fence, 

 according to another account — apparently close to the 

 post, which his horse struck, and down came the pair, 

 while one of the field, riding behind, fell at the same 

 obstacle, and tumbled on Sir Bellingham, who remained 

 insensible, it is said, for something like twenty - four 

 hours, during which time he was bled three times, in 

 accordance with the drastic measures of the day. His 

 chest was much injured, and for five days he was con- 

 fined to his bed ; but on the seventh he was muffled up 



