SIR RICHARD SUTTON 241 



The good wishes contained in this stanza were, it 

 need not be said, heartily re-echoed by all the followers 

 of Sir Richard Sutton's hounds ; but unhappily the time 

 was fast drawing near when the popular master was to be 

 cut off almost in the prime of life, at the comparatively 

 early age of fifty-seven. His hounds had enjoyed many 

 good runs ; but seeing that he had a stud of about eighty 

 horses, a monster pack of hounds, and paid all expenses 

 himself, he came to the conclusion that the game was 

 not worth the candle, and that, owing to one thing and 

 another, the average sport was not good enough to war- 

 rant his expenditure. On this account it was that he 

 determined to resign at the end of the season 1855-56. 



The end, however, came before that, as on the 14th 

 November 1855 the hunting world of Leicestershire was 

 greatly shocked at learning that Sir Richard Sutton 

 had died suddenly at his London residence, Cambridge 

 House, Piccadilly. On the previous Monday he had 

 gone to London on business. On Wednesday he rose 

 in his usual health, ate a good breakfast, wrote some 

 letters, and was shortly afterwards found dead in the 

 lavatory. The sad news of Sir Richard Sutton's de- 

 cease reached Ouorndon Hall soon after the hounds had 

 started for Ratcliffe, 1 and a mounted messenger being 

 despatched, the hounds were of course recalled, and the 

 utmost sorrow prevailed in Leicestershire. Men on 

 arriving at the fixture would scarcely credit the news ; 

 but it proved to be only too true. 



Sir Richard Sutton came of a good old family, tracing 

 back to the Normans, the late master being eighteenth 

 in descent from Richard or Roland de Sutton (upon 

 Trent), who is mentioned in Thornton's "Antiquities of 

 Nottingham," so that, although Sir Richard was not a 

 Leicestershire man, he was very near being one. Sir 

 William Sutton, who lived in the time of Charles I., was, 

 1 See note, page 336. 



Q 



