Olden Times, ']2> 



was completely changed. The hounds were bred 

 lighter and quicker. The men were of the first caste, 

 and the horses as good as money could procure. 

 Charles Kins^, the huntsman, was about ^, , „. 



1 -111 Charles King. 



five feet ten, and weighed about ten 

 stone, just the proper height and weight to make the 

 most of a horse ; strong enough to hold him together, 

 and not too heavy to oppress him. He had the eye 

 of a lynx, a most intelligent and animated counte- 

 nance, which lighted up when things went well. His 

 seat and hand were perfect, and when going along he 

 held himself forward in his saddle. He had an innate 

 taste for music, and played a good deal himself, which 

 probably gave him such an ear for a hound's tongue 

 in covert. In fact, as the Yorkshiremen say, he was a 

 bad one to beat ; and ages may elapse before his like 

 be found. His favourite horses were quite thorough- 

 bred. Perhaps the one he liked best was Contingent 

 by Chance, grandam by Highflyer ; and the next of 

 his favourites were Boadicea, sister to Sir Charles 

 Knightley's Benvolio by Alexander, and The Swede 

 by Agonistes. He had several other charming hunters ; 

 but these three were out-and-out the cream of his 

 stud. 



It is, perhaps, too much the habit of Sport with Lord 

 old sportsmen to hold up the system of Aithorp. 

 past days as preferable to those of the present. We 

 are inclined to believe, however, that, in the records 

 of the Pytchley Hunt, such splendid sport was never 

 before known as at that period. His lordship kept a 

 Hunting Journal ; and if it be now among the records 

 of Aithorp, it will tell how they found at Purzer's 

 Hill, ran over old Naseby Field, to Hothorp, in fifty 

 minutes ; and how, after a short check, they hunted 

 him over the finest part of Leicestershire, and killed 

 him at Sir H. Halford's, at Wistow : how, at another 

 time, they found him in Crick Osier-bed, ran over 

 Crick and Yelvertoft Field, over Honey Hill, into 



