LORD SUFFIELD 181 



Towards the close of Lord Suffield's first and only 

 season (1838-39), that is to say, in the month of March 

 1839, the hounds met at Kirby Gate and made ample 

 atonement for any previous shortcomings, if they ever 

 existed, by bringing off one of the best runs Leicester- 

 shire had ever seen. 



Cream Gorse was the starting-point, and away went the fox 

 towards Melton, afterwards bearing to the right to Great Dalby 

 and pointing for Gartree, hounds running at a tremendous pace, 

 again without any one with them. After the fox had run through 

 the end of the covert and up the hill to Little Dalby, he went 

 away over Burrough Hill to within a few fields of Somerby, and 

 thence he ran almost straight to John o' Gaunt's, into which 

 covert the fox ran in view of the racing pack; but, as may be 

 supposed, the hounds were not in view of more than a very few 

 of the large field of the morning. After dwelling a short time in 

 covert, this good fox went away on the Tilton side for Lowesby 

 Hall, which he succeeded in reaching just in time to find safety 

 in a drain. Lords Gardner, Waterford, and Wilton, Mr. Stuart 

 Wortley, Mr. Little Gilmour, and Sir James Musgrave, though 

 some way from hounds, were the nearest to them, while Tread- 

 well, the huntsman, was in a good position all through. 



The run was estimated at about fourteen miles, and 

 the time a little over an hour ; but either time or dis- 

 tance, or both, must certainly be wrong. Luck favoured 

 the Quorn during the week in which the above run took 

 place, as two other capital gallops were enjoyed, and then 

 people began to think that there was something in the 

 Lambton hounds after all. 



As the season was rapidly drawing to a close, Lord 

 Suffield announced his intention of resigning the Quorn 

 country at once, a statement which was regretted by a 

 good many and caused surprise to some, while others 

 wondered how it was that a man who was in such pecu- 

 niary difficulties as was Lord Suffield could ever have 

 dreamed of becoming master of so expensive a hunt. 



Mrs. Musters, in her most interesting little work, 



