page_title: John Corbet of Sundorne
section_title: Warwickshire Hunt
hierarchical_section_title: John Corbet of Sundorne / Warwickshire Hunt
caption_attribution_description: English: John Corbet is shown in the centre of the composition, with his huntsman, Will Barrow, and a hunt servant at the gate. John Corbet of Sundorne Castle took up the role of Master of the Warwickshire Hunt in 1791. He was known as ‘Father of the Trojans’, a reference to the famous hound in his pack, who is said to be the leading dog in the picture. In 1811 he was succeeded in the mastership by the 6th Lord Middleton, who paid 1,200 guineas for the pack. The fact that the picture is dated 1812 and was in the collection of Lord Middleton may imply that it was commissioned as a portrait to commemorate Courbet’s association with the hunt.
context_page_description: John Corbet of Sundorne, was an English sportsman of the Shropshire landed gentry and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1775 to 1780.
context_section_description: John Corbet was a keen fox hunter and in 1791 he founded the Warwickshire Hunt, with which he hunted almost the whole county of Warwickshire.  Corbet personally covered almost all of the hunt's expenses, requesting only a ₤5 contribution from each member towards earth stopping.  He established a Hunt Club at the White Lion Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon, where once a fortnight the club's members would meet for a dinner.  During the dinner the first toast was always to "the King" and the second to "the blood of the Trojans", Trojan being a favourite hound from which most of the hunt's hounds descended.  During the hunting season, the pack was kept at the White Lion, in the summer it returned to Sundorne.
  In John Corbet's time, the Warwickshire hunt was very well supported by the nobility of Warwickshire.  On the first Monday of November of every year, John Peyto-Verney, 14th Baron Willoughby de Broke of Compton Verney would host a dinner for the club's members at the White Lion to mark the beginning of the hunting season.  Other staunch supporters of the hunt included Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford, Thomas Scott, 2nd Earl of Clonmell and Henry Greville, 3rd Earl of Warwick.
  In 1810, John Corbet's health began to fail and following the entreaties of his family, he agreed to give away his prized pack of hounds.  In 1811, he sold the pack, at the time consisting of over 70 couples of hounds (140 hounds), for 1,200 guineas to Henry Willoughby, 6th Baron Middleton.  With the cheque for the money, Lord Middleton included a note to Corbet in which he stated he saw the transaction as more of a gift than a purchase.
  John Corbet was extremely popular throughout Warwickshire, particularly with the farmers whose country he hunted over and to whom he was renowned for his generosity. For many years after his death a print of him, mounted on a white horse with hounds at foot, was found in many houses throughout the county.
caption: Corbet and the Warwickshire Foxhounds
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