170 THE QUORN HUNT 



Upon which the celebrated Mr. Mellish exclaimed, "Where the 

 h — 11, sir, were you born ? " However, just as my reason had 

 returned and I was about to quit the field, up sprang another 

 fox and we were off again like the wind. Near Uppingham we 

 hurried down a declivity at full gallop, which I have since con- 

 sidered the maddest action of my life. Helter-skelter we then 

 rushed forward to Launde, where reynard met his death. The 

 impetuous creature upon which I was, mad with heat and sport, 

 by way of a finish, plunged over head and ears with me into a 

 gravel pit filled with water. We swam out on the other side, 

 and by the time I had ridden the eighteen miles back to Leicester 

 my ardour for fox-hunting was completely cooled. 



It is perhaps as well to read accounts of hunting 

 from all points of view, and in connection with another 

 dictum of hunting, it may be said that it was Valentine 

 Maher, a famous fox-hunter, who for twenty-five years 

 passed his winters at Melton, who said that it was 

 better fun to ride to and from covert in Leicestershire 

 than to hunt in any other part of the kingdom. This 

 saying, by the way, has been attributed to Whyte-Mel- 

 ville, but inasmuch as it appeared in print in 1859, it is 

 tolerably obvious that it became a saying before Whyte- 

 Melville was given to the utterance of epigrams. 



The season of 1837-38 was Mr. Errington's last, 

 and a farewell dinner was given to him at Leicester. 

 About a hundred and twenty hunting men were present 

 most of those at the chief table being in scarlet. Mr. 

 E. C. Hartopp took the chair, and the company included 

 the Duke of Beaufort, the Marquis of Hastings, the 

 Earls of Wilton and Chesterfield, Count Batthyany, 

 Lords Rancliffe, Gardner, Clanwilliam, Macdonald, 

 Eglinton, Castlereagh, Joscelyn, Dunmore, and others. 

 It seems to have been hoped that, when Mr. Errington 

 determined to give up the country, the Duke of Beaufort 

 would have taken it ; but as he hunted his own pack, 

 which had been in that family for a good many years, it 



