LORD SUFFIELD 179 



" Because I ain't got no corn," added the stud-groom. 



" Immediately apply to the steward, then," said his master 

 angrily. 



" I did, my lord, this morning," replied the man ; " but he told 

 me it was no use coming to him, as the corn-dealer would stand 

 tick no longer." 



"That's an unpleasant circumstance," said his lordship reflec- 

 tively. 



" Yes, and so I said at the time, my lord," returned the ser- 

 vant; "but he said he couldn't help it — that none of the trades- 

 people would give any more credit, except the pastry-cook." 



" D it ! if that's the case, feed your horses on jelly" replied 



his master, after a pause for the hatching of a remedy. 1 



Lord Suffield's fixture on the 5th November 1838 2 

 was not productive of much sport, and is only mentioned 

 on account of the following incident : — 



The first thing that they noticed was that the beautiful and 

 well-known ash-tree, long standing in majestic solitude on an 

 artificial tumulus — for half a century the trysting-place of the 

 Hunt — had been victimised by the late storm. There it lay, once 

 the admiration of all beholders — the pride of the park — the tree 

 which Meynell had climbed to see the finale of a run, when his 

 steed could travel no farther. 



Before leaving the year 1838, it may be as well to 

 make reference to a letter written by "A Leicestershire 

 Farmer and Fox-hunter " to the Leicester Journal, if only 

 to show how history repeats itself. The writer of the letter 

 suggested that, instead of the members of the Quorn 

 Hunt giving ^60, as usual, to be run for at Leicester, 

 it would be better to give it in one, two, or three prizes 

 for the best young horses calculated to make hunters ; 

 to be bond fide the property of farmers in the Ouorn 

 country. The reasons given were that many non-hunt- 



1 The anecdote is in a book called " The Sporting Life of England," by 

 John Mills, author of " The Flyers of the Hunt," " Life of a Foxhound," &c. 



2 In the year 1838 died Mr. John Cradock, who succeeded his father as 

 secretary to the Hunt. More will be said about the Cradock family later on, 



