SIR RICHARD SUTTON 227 



Even so good a sportsman as Sir Richard Sutton 

 found himself unable to please everybody. On the 

 29th December 1847, in Sir Richard's first season, the 

 hounds were due to meet at the Shearsby Sun, a fixture 

 attended by a good many Atherstone and Pytchley men, 

 among the visitors being a sportsman who subsequently 

 figured in print as an "Impartial Observer." He admitted 

 that a dense fog hung over the country, and because Sir 

 Richard Sutton, deeming the weather too thick for hunt- 

 ing, trotted back to his supplementary kennel at Oadby, 

 the itinerant hunting-man waxed exceeding wroth, and 

 declared how different would have been the action of 

 Mr. Osbaldeston or Sir Harry Goodricke in like circum- 

 stances. There was a P.S. to the letter to the effect 

 that the Pytchley, Atherstone, and Warwickshire had 

 good runs on the day in question. This letter was 

 answered by another, the writer stating that on account 

 of the fog the Pytchley never drew a covert all day ; 

 while this was followed by another communication, from 

 a farmer who was out with the Pytchley, giving the 

 details of a very good run which took place on the 

 Friday in question ! 



Scarcely had the season 1848-49 begun than a some- 

 what unusual circumstance occurred with Sir Richard 

 Sutton's hounds — they were no longer called the Ouorn. 

 They met at Ratcliffe. After a good thirty minutes 

 with the first fox, another was found at Hoi well Mouth, 

 whence hounds ran at a good pace up Broughton Hill 

 Side and over Wartnarbey Stone Pits to a small planta- 

 tion in which the discharge of a double-barrelled gun 

 was heard, and it was then found that a farmer had shot 

 the fox. Lord Forester, who was out, " named " another 

 delinquent who lived close to Melton Mowbray, and 

 stated that not only had he been guilty of the same act 

 before, but had publicly boasted of his success as a 

 vulpicide. This man chanced to be out on the occasion 



