252 Silk and Scarlet. 



the cream of the country two out of the four days, and 

 that the heavy-weight should go into the woodlands. 

 His lordship bought Mr. Meynell's fifty couple, and 

 as Stephen had to pack up his household gods, Tom 

 was sent in his place to Combe Abbey to bring the 

 Oxfordshire fifty couple to Quorn. They passed 

 through Leicester on the Good Friday of 1800, just as 

 the people were going into church, and Tom said to the 

 boiler, who was the whip that journey, " Jack, we 

 skouldji'i be here" Lord Sefton cared very little for 

 hounds, but his stud was superb, and he never had 

 less than three horses out in a day. Gooseberry, 

 Moseley, and a grey from Cheshire, which was said to 

 be the finest in England — all did him yeoman's ser- 

 vice under such a crushing hamper ; but Loadstone 

 carried him farther than any of them, and once went 

 so far as not to come to a dead stop till good five 

 minutes over the hour. They had run from Brooksby 

 through Rotherby to Widmerpool, and had their fox 

 dead beat, after a sharp six miles, when a fresh one 

 jumped up from a hedge-row ; and across the Vale of 

 Belvoir to Blackberry Hill, where it was found dead 

 next day at the mouth of an earth. Half a mile from 

 that point, the hounds could make nothing of it, and 

 his lordship and Loadstone only just got to Langar. 

 Lord Sefton in his turn sold Quorn to Lord Foley ; 

 but it was during the five years' mastership of the 

 former, that Jack Raven died, and Tom got his pro- 

 motion as first whip, while George Raven was made 

 second. 

 Mr. Assheton In 1806, Mr. Assheton Smith became 

 Smith. \dng of Quorn in his turn, and Tom rose 

 to the dignity of kennel huntsman, while the redoubt- 

 able Jack Shirley, who had never been with hounds 

 before, burst on to the world from Oxfordshire as 

 second whip. The pack had become sadly uneven in 

 Lord Foley's hands, the bitches averaging generally 

 from eighteen to twenty- one inches, and the dog 



