EARL OF STAMFORD 251 



his grandfather the sixth earl, the master of the Quorn 

 came into the great fortune which enabled him to hunt 

 the country in such magnificent style. Lord Stamford 

 was educated at Eton and Cambridge — what a number 

 of masters of hounds those two seats of learning have 

 turned out — and quite in his early years he showed a 

 remarkable aptitude for all athletic exercises, especially 

 cricket ; and when at Cambridge he kept his horses at 

 Huntingdon, the packs which he chiefly followed being 

 the Oakley and the Fitz-William, though he sometimes 

 travelled as far as the Quorn. But it was rarely that 

 he went out with Squire Barnett (then master of the 

 Cambridgeshire), though he entertained the greatest 

 respect for that excellent sportsman ; but he did not 

 deem his country sufficiently tempting. As a master 

 of hounds Lord Stamford began with the Albrighton, 

 which country he hunted for a season or two from 1848, 

 he being succeeded by the Hon. Arthur Wrottesley ; 

 but came again to the rescue of the country in 1855, 

 giving it up for the Quorn, as already mentioned, 

 in 1856. 



Lord Stamford bought several lots of hounds at the 

 sales of Sir Richard and Mr. Sutton, and also drew 

 on the stock of Captain Anstruther Thomson ; but in 

 addition he bought the entire Bedale pack from Mr. 

 Milbank, and also Mr. Shaw Hellier's hounds. 1 When 

 he became master of the Quorn, therefore, he had about 

 eighty couples of good hounds, and a stud of something 

 like eighty-seven hunters and hacks. Ben Boothroyd, 

 who had been with Mr. Storey in the Donington country, 

 was installed in the huntsman's berth, Sam Bacon and 

 James Maiden being the whippers-in. 



The cub-hunting season was successful enough, and 

 late in October, after meeting at Thornton Roughs, the 

 hounds had a run of two hours and forty minutes. On 



1 See page 29. 



