MR. J. COUPLAND 347 



On Tuesday the 7th of March 18S2, there passed 

 away one of Melton's brightest stars, one of Leicester- 

 shire's best sportsmen, the Earl of Wilton, of Egerton 

 Lodge, Melton Mowbray, where he died. 



His career in the world of sport was somewhat unique in 

 its way. It was about fifty years before his death that he pur- 

 chased Egerton Lodge from Lord Darlington ; but for nearly ten 

 years before that the earl was hunting in Leicestershire, and was 

 still a bold rider to hounds when his eighty-second birthday 

 had come and gone. He was hunting when George III. ruled 

 England, and he was hunting during the season 1881-82. The 

 Earl of Wilton was born on the 30th December 1799, and on the 

 turf his colours were registered so long ago as 1828, though they 

 underwent several changes down to the year 1861. 



When Lord Wilton first began to make his mark in Leicester- 

 shire, Sir Henry Peyton, who, together with his son, were said 

 to be the equals of Mr. Smith, senior, and his son Assheton, was 

 a well-known performer with hounds ; while Lord Forester, the 

 fifth Earl of Jersey, Lord Delamere, Mr. Edge, the great friend 

 of Assheton Smith, and Sir Francis Burdett were hunting with 

 the Quorn, and perhaps not one of them was Lord Wilton's 

 superior over a country. He was built for a horseman — 

 " attenuated Wilton," Mr. Bernal Osborne called him in the 

 " Chaunt of Achilles"; his hands were of the best, and not 

 being a heavy weight he had a great predilection for thorough- 

 bred horses, and for some seasons he rode the thoroughbred 

 stallion Thyrsis, on which he once pounded the whole of the 

 Belvoir field in a famous run from Sproxton Thorns. His 

 manner of riding to hounds was perfect ; he was never in a 

 hurry, and as Dick Christian used to say, when other first flight 

 men found their horses beaten, Lord Wilton would apparently 

 just begin to ride. But then he had a wonderful eye for country; 

 he knew every fence in Leicestershire, and could pick out the 

 most practicable place in each. The story has been told how, on 

 hearing, after a good day, some of those who had taken part 

 in it describing the double oxers and all kinds of yawners they 

 had jumped, he would say, " Oh, dear, where do they find these 

 terrible places ? / never come across them." The fact, how- 

 ever, that he set the Belvoir, as just now mentioned, would serve 

 to show that he did sometimes come across a big place — a place 

 big enough, at all events, to stop everybody else. At the same 



