344 THE QUORN HUNT 



coverts were always drawn blank, and once when hounds 

 ran through, pheasants rose in hundreds, while after this 

 five hundred were shot in two days. It was thought 

 that the gentleman in question would very likely before 

 lone solicit the suffrages of the electors, and a follower of 

 the Ouorn pointed out that it would be well to remember 

 his indifference to the fox-hunting interest. Whether he 

 ever did come forward as a candidate for Parliamentary 

 honours I am unable to say. 



The Empress of Austria paid another visit to Leices- 

 tershire in 1878, and just afterwards Lord James Douglas 

 sustained a very nasty fall. His horse put his foot in a 

 newly-made drain while galloping across an open field. 

 He was riding wide of the hounds, and so no one 

 observed the fall. When Lord James came down the 

 sun was shining brightly, but when he returned to con- 

 sciousness he found a labourer standing over him by the 

 light of the moon. Thanks to the labourer's orood offices 

 he was taken to a house, and in due time recovered. 



A further proof of Mr. Coupland's popularity is 

 shown from the fact that in 1879 the members of the 

 Quorn Hunt made up their minds to present the master 

 with a fitting gift in commemoration of his approaching 

 marriage, while the tenant-farmers on the Billesdon side 

 gave him two handsome silver soup-tureens. 



One event which happened towards the close of the 

 season 1878-79 deserves to be mentioned, and that is the 

 death of that famous steeplechase horse, the Doctor. 

 He ran second in the Grand National of 1870, and 

 when a turn in his temper rendered him useless for 

 steeplechasing, he was made over to Mr. Custance as 

 a hunter, and carried him brilliantly for several seasons. 

 As that famous ex-jockey writes in his book, published 

 not long- ago : " The club-footed horse was well known 

 in Leicestershire ; no fence was big enough to stop him, 

 and no hounds ran too fast for him. His end came 



