294 THE QUORN HUNT 



MARQUIS OF HASTINGS 



1866-1868 



WHAT the country intended to do with respect to 

 a new master does not appear to be very clear. 

 Nobody appears to have offered himself for the post, nor 

 do the committee seem to have made any effort to dis- 

 cover any one who would be willing to fill the vacancy 

 caused by the retirement of Mr. Clowes, but at the sale 

 of that gentleman's hounds it was discovered that the 

 Marquis of Hastings, whose name was well known in 

 connection with the turf, had bought something like 

 twenty-eight couples of the best hounds. It was said 

 that he bought the nucleus of his pack a good deal better 

 than he expected, as it was reported that he had given 

 Mr. Storey, who was present at the sale on his behalf, a 

 commission not to go over a hundred guineas a couple. 

 But it appears that he was not called upon to pay anything 

 like that sum. Lord Curzon and Captain Anstruther 

 Thomson bought a lot apiece. The late Lord (then 

 the Hon. R. C.) Hill bought some for Shropshire, and 

 some went to the Albrighton country. The Marquis of 

 Hastings at any rate secured a sufficient number to start 

 hunting with ; and so eager was he to begin his duties as 

 M.F. H. that he had Macbride and the hounds out at 

 Grace Dieu on the Forest on the morning after the sale, 

 and finding a fox had a capital twenty-five minutes with 

 him, eventually rolling over the fox in the open. The 

 new master was also a purchaser of some of Mr. Drake's 

 hounds, while he drew as well upon the Bedale and South 



