SIR HARRY GOODRICKE 147 



payment of other expenses which he took upon his own 

 shoulders, cost him something over six thousand pounds 

 a year. That he was a good sportsman is clear from a 

 story related of him to the effect that on one very wet 

 evening he was seen at Melton with a lame hound in a 

 lead, and he was taking it back to Thrussington, a task 

 involving travelling- at a foot's pace over upwards of ten 

 miles of road. 



With his Irish tenants Sir Harry was very popular, 

 for he made it a point always to pass some part of the 

 year on his Irish property. In Leicestershire, however, 

 there was a rumour that at one time the master of the 

 Quorn was not in high favour, because he had spoken in 

 somewhat uncomplimentary terms of the horses bred by 

 the farmers in his hunt. So far as can be discovered, the 

 facts are that Sir Harry, who was always superexcellently 

 mounted, was once approached by a Leicestershire farmer 

 who had a hunter to sell. The horse was not up to the 

 future master's high standard, and Sir Harry is said to 

 have ventured the remark that for so good a country the 

 horses bred therein were not up to the standard which 

 might have been expected ; upon this was based the 

 story of his unpopularity. 



If, however, there was any friction, it soon dis- 

 appeared, for when he came to hunt the country no man 

 could have stood higher in the farmers' estimation. 



Concerning Sir Harry Goodricke's kennel there 

 appears to be some uncertainty. It has been generally 

 supposed that Sir Harry took over and kept, as he found 

 them, Lord Southampton's hounds. As before remarked, 

 however, Lord Southampton had the nucleus of a very 

 good pack in the hounds Mountford brought with him 

 from Oakley (Lord Tavistock's), whereas Sir Harry 

 Goodricke admitted the truth of the criticism passed on 

 his kennel to the effect that his hounds were not worthy 

 of Leicestershire ; but he declared that he would per- 



