THE BILLESDEN COPLOW RUN. 19 



as usual, alongside of the hounds. Coming to a formidable 

 ditch, the old horse, to his rider's great surprise, stopped 

 short, when, without turning him, he made him take the 

 fence standing, observing : * You and I will be soon better 

 acquainted.' And so it proved, for Marquis refused nothing 

 else in the run." 



As early as the year 1800, when the subject of our 

 memoir was only twenty-four years old, we find him sig- 

 nalized in song, as a most successful and daring rider. In 

 the celebrated run from Billesden Coplow, on the 24th 

 February, in that year, when Mr. Meynell * hunted the 

 Quorn country, four gentlemen only, with Jack Raven the 

 huntsman, were up at the finish (when they changed foxes 

 at Enderby), although the best horsemen of the day were 

 out. There were several copies of verses written on the 

 occasion, which quizzed many, and commended few. Those 

 who love hunting, and can enjoy it, will not be displeased 

 with a quotation from one of the songs. 



**Two hours and a quarter, I think, was the time ; 

 It was beautiful — great — indeed 'twas sublime : 

 Not MeyneU himself, the king of all men, 

 Ere saw such a chase, or will ere see again. 

 > Tom Smith in the contest maintained a good place ; 



Tho' not first up at last, made a famous good race. 



* Mr. Me3mell was considered the first fox-hunter of his day. He 

 bought the mansion at Quorndon of Earl Ferrers, and, after a residence 

 there of nearly fifty years, he disposed of it to the earl of Sefton in 

 1800, upon the death of his eldest son, which took place May 17th in that 

 year. Mr. Meynell died at Bradley, in Derbyshire, December, 1808, 

 in his seventy-fourth year, universally lamented. He was the first who 

 established order and discipline in the hunting-field, more by his good- 

 humoured pleasantry than by the assumption or exercise of any authority 

 over others. When two young and dashing riders had headed the 

 hounds, he remarked, *' the hounds were following the gentlemen, who 

 had very kindly gone forward to see what the fox was about." His grand 

 meet at Quorndon Hall, in 1791, given to the first nobility and gentry 

 of England, was second only to that given to Mr. Assheton Smith at 

 EoUeston, in 1840. 



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