126 THE QUORN HUNT 



refreshments were supplied by caterers carrying on busi- 

 ness beyond the confines of Leicestershire, while at the 

 present time there are too many ship oats and too much 

 foreign hay used in the forage of hunters. 



At the beginning of the season 1828-29, or rather 

 towards the close of cub-hunting, bad luck overtook the 

 Quorn establishment, as one whipper-in broke his leg, 

 and the other his collar-bone; so hunting was for a short 

 time suspended, and then, pending their convalescence, 

 the master had to do the best he could with the kennel- 

 man and a groom officiating as whippers-in. 



For close upon two seasons Lord Southampton 

 rubbed along as best he could by getting drafts from 

 different kennels, but towards the close of his second 

 season (1828-29) an opportunity for effecting a vast 

 improvement in the kennel presented itself, and Lord 

 Southampton at once jumped at it. The Marquis of 

 Tavistock having determined to give up the Oakley 

 country at the end of the season 1828-29 to the Hon. 

 Grantley Berkeley, finished his hunting several weeks 

 before the Quorn were due to stop, and sold his hounds 

 to Lord Southampton, who promptly had them removed 

 to the Quorn kennels, and two days after their arrival 

 they made their first appearance at a Leicestershire 

 covert-side. They were a capital pack, too, having a 

 good deal of the old Pytchley and Badminton blood 

 in them. George Mountford (a first-class man in the 

 kennel, in the field, and in the saddle), who had been 

 the Oakley huntsman, came with them, bringing with 

 him his second whipper-in, George Beers, while Will 

 Derry, who was born in Nottinghamshire, and learned 

 his business under Mr. Musters, and who whipped in to 

 Dick Burton, remained on as first whipper-in. Mount- 

 ford had originally whipped in to the Berkeley hounds 

 for several seasons, and had been whipper-in to the 

 Oakley before he was appointed huntsman. Some of 



