370 THE QUORN HUNT 



those who knew the country but slightly may have been 

 puzzled at the constant mention of Holwell Mouth covert. 

 The explanation is that for time out of mind it was a 

 covert common to both the above packs, and, like most 

 compromises, this arrangement did not work quite 

 smoothly ; so before the season 1891-92 opened, Holwell 

 Mouth was made over to the Belvoir, that hunt giving 

 up its claim to draw a string of coverts on a border line 

 which up to that time had never been clearly laid down. 

 After this new arrangement, however, a boundary line 

 between the two hunts was agreed upon, to the intense 

 satisfaction of all concerned. 



There is an old saying, " The more splash the more 

 sport," but it was not verified at any rate during the 

 first two months of the season 1891-92. The ground 

 was deep enough in all conscience, and was the cause 

 of a good many tumbles. Mr. Sidney Paget's horse, 

 on landing in a soft place, fell and broke its back, while 

 a lady riding in that gentleman's wake rode over him, 

 though luckily without doing any injury to the prostrate 

 sportsman. About the same time (November 1891) a 

 sad fatality overtook Mr. Hedworth Barclay's stud- 

 oroom, Levi Simpkin, who was widely known and re- 

 spected in Melton Mowbray. Together with a couple 

 of stablemen, Simpkin was clipping and singeing a 

 somewhat fretful hunter. The clipping process had 

 been completed, and soon after the lamp was brought 

 into use, the horse reared, knocked down the stud- 

 oroorn, who subsequently succumbed to the injuries in- 

 flicted by the horse trampling on him. Nor did the 

 mischief stop here, for, on rearing a second time, he 

 knocked down one of the helpers and broke his arm. 



A frost in January 1892 suggested to some Leicester- 

 shire sportsmen that time might be killed more or less 

 effectively by having a man-hunt with bloodhounds ; so, 

 a youth having been induced to enact the part of a 



