SIR RICHARD SUTTON 239 



else, was nowhere near them, and as in a former run the fox was for 

 some time on one side of the fence while the hounds were running 

 hard on the other, and the pack had not the strength to get either 

 through or over the fence. The whole distance was said to be 

 twenty-five miles, and the time an hour and a half. Here, there- 

 fore, is another instance of the absolute untrustworthiness of either 

 the time or distance, if not both, of some of the other runs read 

 about in comparatively olden, as well as in modern times. The 

 first flight, such as it was, consisted of Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Ainsworth, 

 Mr. Wood, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Heycock, Captain Hawksley, the 

 Hon. H. Coventry, Lord Gardner, &c. All the horses were com- 

 pletely settled, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the 

 hounds were taken to Leicester, where a special train was char- 

 tered, and the hounds, horses, and some of the field were carried 

 along the Syston and Peterborough line, the Meltonians being 

 dropped en route, and the rest taken on to Oakham. 



In the year 1855 a fillip was given to the social life 

 of Melton Mowbray by a lengthy visit of the Duchess 

 of Cambridge and the Princess Mary (Duchess of Teck) 

 to the Earl and Countess of Wilton at Egerton Lodge ; 

 but at the same time the pleasure of hunting men was 

 somewhat marred by the discovery that a dog fox and a 

 brace of vixens had been poisoned in Sir Harry Good- 

 ricke's Gorse. The two vixens were buried, but the doe 

 was sent for examination to Mr. Brown, the noted 

 veterinary surgeon of Melton. He found in the stomach 

 of the fox, which weighed 16 lbs., 1 the remains of a 

 poisoned " crow" ; but as some of the local farmers had 

 taken to the practice of setting poison for rooks, it was 

 thought, after due consideration, that the foxes were 

 killed, not by poison set for them, but because they had 

 eaten the rooks which had partaken of the poisoned food. 



Early in the year 1855, Sir Richard Sutton had 

 made casual mention of his desire to resign the master- 



1 The average weight of a dog fox is about 13 lbs. They have weighed 

 as little as 1 1 lbs. and as much as 20 lbs. ; but these more gigantic speci- 

 mens have been killed in the Fell countries. Vixens scale about 2 lbs. less 

 than dogs. 



