LORD SOUTHAMPTON 121 



LORD SOUTHAMPTON 



1827 1831 



AMONG the many keen and hard-riding hunting 

 . men who from time to time had visited Leicester- 

 shire was the Lord Southampton who had hunted with 

 the Ouorn, and he was, in the year 1827, induced to 

 become the next master of that famous pack. 



Mr. Osbaldeston signalised his last season as master 

 of the Ouorn by taking the hounds out every day, the 

 hour of meeting being ten o'clock on some days and half- 

 an-hour later on others, while towards the end of May a 

 notice appeared in the Leicester Journal that all persons 

 having any claim upon the Ouorn Hunt for coverts and 

 earth-stopping should attend at certain places on certain 

 days and at specified hours to have their claims satisfied, 

 though whether this notice was issued by the Squire or 

 Lord Southampton is not certain. 



It would appear, however, that everything was not 

 as it should be at the time of Lord Southampton's acces- 

 sion to office. When Mr. Osbaldeston's second term of 

 mastership came to an end, the Ouorn country was said 

 to be nearly destitute of foxes. P^or some time pre- 

 viously it had been found expedient to cultivate friendly 

 relations with the workmen in the Swithland slate quar- 

 ries, in order to prevent the destruction of the cubs bred 

 in the rocks and coverts near the works. Apparently 

 some kindly sportsman had been in the habit of pro- 

 pitiating the quarrymen, but by the time July 1827 

 arrived, this had become nobody's business, so the 



