178 THE QUORN HUNT 



gestce, such as riding up and down the marble staircase, 

 and leaping Cock Robin over chairs and tables in the 

 drawing-room. 1 



When, however, the hounds arrived in Leicestershire 

 they were " crabbed " by nearly every one, though Tread- 

 well, the huntsman who brought them from the Sedgfield 

 country into Leicestershire, declared that they wanted no 

 hunting. In spite of a crippled purse, Lord Suffield 

 began his career regardless of expense. His stables 

 were filled with the best horses to be procured for money 

 — or credit ; he built new kennels at Billesdon, at a cost 

 of ^4500 ; he approached the farmers and landowners 

 in a very conciliatory spirit, and to those who were 

 unaware of his pecuniary embarrassments his term of 

 mastership promised to be successful enough. 



Lord Suffield expressed himself as determined to 

 show sport, 2 and, resolving that the farmers should be 

 gainers rather than losers by the presence of the Ouorn 

 Hunt, declared that he would pay all damage and spoil, 

 and would buy his forage, &c, direct from the farmers 

 instead of from the dealers. How far he was enabled 

 to carry out his good intentions the following anecdote 

 will show : — 



Upon one occasion his lordship complained to his stud-groom 

 of the want of condition in his horses. 



" I can't help it," was the brief and somewhat surly reply. 



" Can't help it ? " repeated his lordship, surprise portrayed in 

 every feature ; " and why not ? " 



1 During one of the meetings of the Royal Hunt Club at Aylesbury, the 

 Marquis of Waterford had his horse brought upstairs to the dining-room at 

 the White Hart ; and a grey of Charlie Symonds's is said there to have 

 jumped the dinner-table ; he was ridden over it by Mr. Manning, a sporting 

 farmer. See " Echoes of Old Country Life," by J. K. Fowler. 



2 When Lord Suffield first took the country, it was thought that he 

 showed a tendency to baulking the people who came out on foot, so a 

 foremost member of the Hunt begged him to do nothing of the kind, as 

 if he did the disappointed pedestrians would be sure to kill foxes by way of 

 retaliation. 



