MR. CLOWES 285 



face, but like the good sportsman that he was, he ran all 

 the risks and met with a very poor return, owing to the 

 weather. 



Not for the first time during Mr. Clowes's mastership 

 did the question of wire-fencing come up for argument, 

 and in the autumn of the new master's first season 

 (1863-64) a manifesto was put forth by sundry land- 

 owners and sportsmen in the counties of Leicestershire 

 and Northamptonshire stating that they had observed 

 with deep regret the increasing practice of fencing with 

 wire as a substitute for rails, as well as for stopping gaps. 

 They pointed out that this new kind of fencing was 

 dangerous both to men and horses, and that, if persisted 

 in, it would entirely put a stop to hunting. The signa- 

 tories to the document could not for a moment imagine 

 that the farmers in general would desire such an 

 eventuality, and they hoped that the tenant-farmers 

 would consider whether it would not be advisable to 

 discontinue the use of wire, at least from November to 

 April. Shortly after, however, in the columns of the 

 Field, that is to say, in the issue of November 7, 1863, 

 there appeared a letter in favour of wire-fencing, penned 

 by Mr. E. A. Paget. 1 



Before Mr. Clowes's first season opened, the fine 

 stables built by Mr. Lyne Stephens found a new tenant 

 in Mr. Chaplin, who therein housed eighteen fine hunters. 

 For some reason or other a prejudice had existed against 

 these stables, which, until Mr. Chaplin took them, were 

 unoccupied for many years. 



Owing to various circumstances, bad weather in- 

 cluded, Mr. Clowes's opening day with the Ouorn at 

 Kirby Gate (1863) was not quite such a brilliant function 



1 The question of wire-fencing appears to have first cropped up in 

 Leicestershire about 1858, though I fancy something was said about it in 

 the time of Sir Richard Sutton, and towards the close of Lord Stamford's 

 mastership it became something of a burning question. During more recent 

 years wire has been taken down and replaced at the expense of the Hunt. 



