292 THE QUORN HUNT 



Lord Stamford, and it was no wonder his lordship said he should 

 retire at the termination of the season. He (Mr. Clowes) then 

 tried hard all the winter, and became tired of making the neces- 

 sary efforts ; he could not obtain a committee ; so he took upon 

 himself to rent the coverts. The season being over, he inquired 

 of Lord Stamford if he were going on again, and on receiving an 

 affirmative reply, Mr. Clowes again undertook the coverts. The 

 next season saw the actual retirement of Lord Stamford, the 

 committee were again placed in their old position, and then Mr. 

 Clowes offered to get a pack of hounds, and hunt the country in 

 the best manner he could, if ^1600 a year could be raised. The 

 ex-master then went on to say that he had carried on the country 

 for the last three years, but now they were in a mess again, and 

 he proceeded to explain why he relinquished the mastership. He 

 had thought that if he had so much in the shape of a subscription, 

 he could manage the remainder without its proving detrimental to 

 his private property, or without its taking more of his income than 

 he ought to spend on any one amusement ; but, on looking closely 

 into matters, he discovered that the mastership was costing him 

 more than he should expend on such an object, and he determined 

 to resign. It was, however, a mistake to suppose he had not been 

 properly supported. In the first year he received nearly -£2000, 

 and in the next he found himself a little short; but then it 

 must be understood that there was no one to collect the subscrip- 

 tions, and, independently of taking charge of the hounds, he had 

 had all the business of the management of the country thrown 

 upon him. He, however, had a full knowledge of the difficulties 

 to be gone through to obtain subscriptions when he took office ; 

 but the expense had become too much for him, and the bother 

 of the country and the coverts was too much for any one man 

 to cope with. No blame attached to anybody, for he took 

 the country as he found it, but discovered it was too much for 

 him. It had been insinuated in some quarters that he had been 

 badly used; but, with the single exception of a half-witted fellow 

 who lived in the forest, he had always been treated well by 

 everybody. 1 



1 In January of 1803, just before Lord Stamford's period of mastership 

 came to an end, and about the time that Mr. Clowes made his offer to hunt 

 the country, Mr. W. U. Heygate, M.P., offered to issue some circulars with 

 the idea of urging hunting men to contribute to the Hunt funds, so as to 

 satisfy Mr. Clowes's remarkably modest requirements. Thereupon "An Old 

 Fox-hunter" wrote to the Leicester Journal (16th January 1863) to "plead 



