364 THE QUORN HUNT 



first time. His friend and frequent rival, Squire Osbaldeston, was 

 then master of the Quorn. His doings on horseback are well 

 known, and he was one of the first to encourage steeplechasing. 

 As a deerstalker and rifle-shot it is unnecessary to say more of 

 Captain Ross, and for several years he was a well-known atten- 

 dant in Leicestershire, was exceedingly keen on hunting, and was 

 bad to beat over any country. 



The year 1886 went out with a frost which lasted 

 for something like six weeks, and when hunting again 

 became possible, that is to say on Monday, January 24, 

 when the hounds met at Baggrave, the huntsman broke 

 his collar-bone, and for some little time, until he was 

 ready to take the saddle again, the first whipper-in 

 hunted the pack, and with considerable success. 



On Friday, January 28, the hounds met at Ratcliffe-on-the- 

 Wreake, and after a short ring from Cossington Gorse, found 

 another fox at Thrussington Gorse. A third one went away from 

 Ragdale Wood, and for forty-five minutes he ran in a circle 

 by Schoby Scholes. The first whipper-in, who was still acting as 

 huntsman, viewed his fox, when a fresh one jumped up out of a 

 patch of gorse, but soon afterwards the pack was taken home. 

 Two hounds, evidently making a short cut, dashed through a 

 hollow in the woods on to a frozen piece of water, but the ice 

 proved to be thin in the middle, and one of the hounds was 

 unfortunately drowned. 



Just as the cub-hunting season (1887-88) was getting 

 towards its last, the death was announced of an old 

 follower of the Quorn, whose name was once a house- 

 hold word in the country, but who might have been 

 forgotten by many who were with the hounds in 1887. 



This was Mr. Walter James Little Gilmour, who was born so 

 long ago as 1806, and who died on Friday, December 3, 1887. 

 He was a Scotchman, and early in life came into a clear income of 

 about .£12,000 a year, of which he spent comparatively little, and 

 when he gave up hunting retired to his house in North Bank, 

 St. John's Wood, London, where he spent still less ; and during 



