166 THE QUORN HUNT 



all it should be done well; so in the year 1836, being 

 assisted by a band of willing workers, a ball was brought 

 off at the Assembly Rooms, Leicester. The arrange- 

 ments were excellent ; the supper is said to have been 

 splendid, and Weippert's full band was in attendance. 

 So even in those days hunting men did not get all they 

 wanted round about the neighbourhood. Lord Wilton, 

 Messrs. E. B. Hartopp and E. B. Farnham lent valu- 

 able assistance to the master of the Quorn ; and Lord 

 Wilton, in proposing Mr. Errington's health after supper, 

 spoke of him as "a friend, a gentleman, and a public 

 character." 



The season of 1836-37 was an improvement on that 

 which had preceded. Since Lord Southampton had 

 bought the Oakley hounds, neither the pack nor the staff 

 had undergone any alteration. George Mountford was 

 still huntsman, Will Derry was first whipper-in, and 

 George Beers second. The last-named left in 1836 to 

 become huntsman to Mr. Musters in Nottinghamshire ; 

 and he was replaced by Tom Ball, who had formerly 

 whipped in under Mr. Grantley Berkeley, and with 

 Mr. Wilkins in Northamptonshire when that gentle- 

 man hunted the Pytchley country. 



The season of 1837-38 was somewhat brilliant, good 

 runs, both in cub-hunting and during the season of 

 regular hunting, coming thick and fast ; while there was 

 an abundant supply of foxes, an improvement on matters 

 in the previous years. Mr. Errington by this time had 

 announced his intention of living at Melton, and it was 

 during this season, probably early in 1838, that Mr. 

 (afterwards Sir) Francis Grant was deputed by him to 

 paint the picture of the "Melton Hunt Breakfast." 

 Hunting pictures in the open air had been plentiful 

 enough ; as one critic said, " there were few mansions 

 whose walls were not adorned by 'hunting pieces,' in 

 which sundry elderly gentlemen in grotesque-looking 



