148 THE QUORN HUNT 



severe until his kennel was satisfactory, if not perfect 

 and as Sir Harry was rather a judge of a horse and a 

 riding man than a hound man, the confession would seem 

 to imply that the standard of the hounds was not high. 

 To reconcile these two statements is not easy ; but, from 

 what can be made out, it would appear that Sir Harry 

 Goodricke sold Lord Southampton's pack (including the 

 Oakley division) to Mr. Russell of the Warwickshire, 

 and bought the hounds of Lord Petre, who gave up his 

 Essex country in 1831, and we find one sportsman com- 

 plaining that " Lord Petre's hounds ill supply the place 

 of those he parted with." At the end of his first season, 

 however, Sir Harry was able to buy the hounds of Mr. 

 Shaw, when he, in consequence of the extent to which 

 foxes were killed, gave up the country he hunted from 

 Lichfield to the outskirts of Birmingham ; while Sir 

 Harry also bought Mr. Saville's draft and twenty couples 

 out of Norfolk belonging either to Sir Jacob Astley or 

 Mr. Hill. 



If, however, the hounds themselves left something to 

 be desired, they managed in Mountford's hands to show 

 some very good sport ; while, under so popular a master 

 as Sir Harry Goodricke, rank and fashion set towards 

 Leicestershire as much as ever. The Old Club at Melton 

 claimed for its members Mr. T. Moore, Sir J. Musgrave, 

 Mr. Val Maher, and Lord Forester. Sir Harry Good- 

 ricke, Mr. Gilmour, and Lord Gardner kept house 

 together ; Mr. Stanley and Mr. Errington, who were 

 brothers, had a joint establishment, as also had Lords 

 Rokeby and Alvanley ; while Melton Lodge held Lord 

 Kinnaird, the Messrs. Maxwell, Mr. Fairfax, Mr. White, 

 Mr. Ewart, and Lord Plymouth ; Lord and Lady Sarah 

 Ingestre, Sir John Kaye, and Colonel Drummond housed 

 themselves at Leicester, and most places within reach of 

 hounds had their visitors. Over Melton itself a great 

 change was in progress. Only a few years before it was 



