252 THE QUORN HUNT 



the first day of the regular season, the fixture was 

 changed from the time-honoured Kirby Gate to Ash- 

 fordby ; but there appears to have been some misunder- 

 standing as to the opening day, as not a few hunting 

 men made their way to Kirby Gate. 



Ashfordby, by the way, was the residence of two 

 gentlemen who both died since the previous season had 

 opened at Kirby Gate, one of them a few days only 

 before the Ashfordby fixture. They were Mr. John 

 Dick Burnaby of the Hall, and the Reverend Andrew 

 Burnaby, the rector. The latter was a "character." 

 He at one time kept a large private school at Louth, 

 in Lincolnshire, and enjoyed great fame as a scholar. 

 He published, in addition to some Latin poems, a good 

 many in English, some of both being in praise of the 

 chase ; while a book called Horce Scholastics was also 

 from his pen. In due course the rich family living of 

 Ashfordby fell vacant, and on his induction thereto, 

 he shut himself up in the big rectory house without a 

 single attendant, and lived the life of an anchorite. His 

 benevolence, however, was only bounded by his means, 

 for nearly every shilling of his income was expended in 

 works of charity. Possessed, however, of strange sport- 

 ing instincts, he permitted himself the luxury of a horse 

 and a gig, and whenever the hounds were anywhere at 

 hand he used to hunt on wheels — for he was gouty ; but 

 he must have suffered from "poor man's gout" — and 

 generally contrived to see a good deal of the run ; while 

 his enthusiasm was as great as that of the best-mounted 

 follower of Lord Stamford's hounds. 



In the early weeks of 1857 Ben Boothroyd had a 

 bad fall, so in his absence Lord Stamford carried the 

 horn himself ; and on his first day, although he lost his 

 fox, he succeeded in having a good run, and on sub- 

 sequent occasions he proved conclusively that he knew 

 how to handle hounds. The veteran Mr. Little Gilmour 



