FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES. 5 



happy combination in the first place doubtless gave special 

 distinction to Leicestershire, and the counties bordering on it. 

 No ploughshares at that time fretted the fair surface of those 

 old pastures. For miles in every direction there was nothing to 

 interfere with the dash of a clamorous pack in hot pursuit. Nearly 

 all the fields afforded good galloping ground, and the fences, 

 though few, were big enough to add a strong spice of danger to 

 other pleasures of the chase. These were natural advantages, 

 however, of which the Midlands had not a monopoly, and they 

 alone would not have made Melton the hunting centre of the 

 world. But when the great Hugo Meynell began, at Quorndon 

 Hall, to breed hounds for speed, and to handle them with a 

 quickness that had been previously unknown, the fame of Quorn 

 sport attracted aspiring youths from all quarters of England. 

 They vied with each other in hard riding, until their keen rivalry 

 became an embarrassment to the master and a danger to his 

 hounds. Then the system that had been adopted for pleasure 

 became perpetuated and intensified as a necessity. No hunts- 

 man or hound that showed a tendency to dwell upon the line 

 could be tolerated longer. The avalanche of horsemen would be 

 upon them the moment they hung about, and so they got into a 

 habit of flinging forward with a dash whenever scent failed. To 

 have a pack that would bear to be lifted without becoming wild, 

 even amid a bewildering maze of hoofs in rapid motion, became 

 imperative then. The new conditions demanded quick resolution 

 and magnetic power of command in a huntsman ; high courage 

 and the quality known. as "drive" in hounds. These were 

 developed in time, and by scientific system they have been trans- 

 mitted from generation to generation. Nowhere out of the shires 



