Accounts of the Famous Fox-Hunts Across the 'Shires' - Including the Belvoir, the Quorn, Mr. Fernie's Hunt, the Pytchley, the Atherstone, the Warwicks

By Read Books Ltd.

Hunting is a large part of rural British life, this book is packed with stories of fantastic rides in Rugby, Leicester, Northampton and the western Midlands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473356559

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PRECEPT

THE HUNTS AND THEIR HISTORY

Importance of the Huntsman—Increasing Difficulties of Hunting—Music and Pace of different Packs—The Quorn—Mr. Meynell—Lord Sefton—Nimrod’s Comments—Mr. Osbaldeston—Tom Firr—Lord Lonsdale—Captain Burns-Hartopp—The Cottesmore—Sir William Lowther—Sir Richard Sutton—Lord Kesteven—Mr. Baird—Foundation of the Kennel—Mr. Evan Hanbury—Arthur Thatcher—Oakham as a Hunting Centre—The Belvoir—A Big Crowd—The Hunt Servants and their Horses—A Typical Day—History of The Pack—Successive Huntsmen—Belvoir Blood in Other Packs—Sir Gilbert Greenall and Capell—Brocklesby and Belvoir—Goodall and Gillard—Masters of the Belvoir—Society at the Castle—Deputy Masters—Lord Forester—Dukes of Rutland—A great County Hunt—Mr. Fernie’s Hunt—The Country—The Division during Sir Richard Sutton’s Mastership—Mr. Tailby—Some Hard Riders—The Billesdon—Sir Bache Cunard—Why Mr. Fernie’s Fixtures are not Overcrowded—Big Studs the Exception—The Right Kind of Horse—Brooks in the Country—Notable Huntsmen trained in Mr. Fernie’s Country—The Pack—The Pytchley—Mr. Naylor’s Mastership—Squires, the Huntsman—Northamptonshire as a Hunting County—Mr. Meynell’s Influence on Hunting—The First Earl Spencer—Dick Knight—Mr. Warde—His Horse Solyman—A Long Run—Lord Althorp—Later Masters—Sir Bellingham Graham—Mr. Osbaldeston—Mr. George Payne—Lord Chesterfield—The Other Tom Smith—Sir Francis Goodricke—A Hunting Pauper—Charles Payn—Colonel Anstruther Thomson—Conflicting Interests in a Hunting Country—Lord Spencer as Master—M. Brunetière on English Sports—Sir Herbert Langham—Whyte-Melville on the Pytchley—The Woodland Pytchley—Early Masters—The Woodlands—The Atherstone—Mr. Osbaldeston—Lord Vernon’s Hounds—Famous Hunt Clubs—Lord Anson’s Mastership—Mr. Oakley—Mr. J. C. Munro—Lord Denbigh’s Coverts—Other Landowners who Support the Hunt—The Warwickshire and North Warwickshire—Character of the Country—The Shuckburgh Country—Stratford-on-Avon—The Plough Lands—Nimrod’s Views—Mr. Corbet—An Old Writer on the Warwickshire Country—Will Barrow—Lord Middleton—Mr. Shirley—Mr. Vyner’s Scratch Pack—Other Masters—Leamington as a Hunting Centre—Mr. Baker—Peter Collison—Hounds Crossed with Bloodhounds—Lord Willoughby de Broke.

THIS chapter will deal with the packs that hunt the various countries which are included in the general term of the Shires. The word, though an awkward one, is commended to us by usage and by the fact that it expresses our meaning. There are other grass countries besides those treated of in this volume, but, though their hunting is over pasture land for the most part, they are not included in the Shires, the fixtures of which can be reached from the centres treated of in the foregoing chapters. In the following pages I shall sketch the history, organisation and methods of hunting of these packs of hounds. The history of some of the packs has been written in full or in part by those who have had access to the papers of the various masters and huntsmen, or whose personal knowledge of the country has made them authorities on the subject. My object here is only to give such a general view of the past of the hunts as may enable a visitor to understand their present position.

There is an undoubted increase of pleasure in hunting over ground which has been connected with so many famous men in the past. In the Quorn, the Belvoir, the Pytchley and Mr. Fernie’s hunt there is no covert, nay there is scarcely a field or a fence which has not some association with the story of fox-hunting and its rise as a national sport in England. I confess I can never see Glooston Wood or Shangton Holt drawn without seeming to hear, as the too impetuous field dashes away, the Hi, Hi of Mr. Assheton Smith uttered with all the old H’ emphasis as he strove to gain time for his hounds to settle. In the lane by Glenn Gorse I seem to hear the shrill tones of the Squire (Osbaldeston) as he alternately cheered his hounds and gossiped with his friends, or darted away with three couple of leading hounds, leaving the others to come through the horses, as indeed you may sometimes see them do to-day. Or, again, with the Belvoir I hear the silky tones of Gentleman Shaw at a check, as hounds waver for a moment outside Freeby Wood or Bescaby Oaks. Gently, gentlemen, gently. One moment, and I’ll thank ye.

Or, to come nearer to our own time, Tom Firr’s deep note sounds in our ears, as his hounds put down their heads after being lifted dear of a too eager field, or the eager Huic, Huic, Huic of Will Goodall the younger as he cheered his hounds together. The dark fences before you in the Harborough country are those that Mr. Smith said could all be crossed with a fall, and the hedges dean and fair of the best of the Quorn those that Lord Wilton sailed over, never finding those big places they talk of, because to a consummate horseman with an eye for country and the best of cattle even Leicestershire loses its terrors.

In looking back over the history of the past, certain points seem common to all the hunts in all periods of their history. The first of these is the importance of the huntsman to the sport. Say what we will about this, one fact stands out clearly, that when these packs have had a first-rate man to hunt them the average of sport has been good, and when ordinary knowledge and skill carried the horn there has been plenty of fun, but when the huntsman has not had the requisite qualities there has been comparative failure. I say comparative, because in grass countries—and more rarely in the provinces—are days when hounds cannot but run, so strong is the scent, at all events until they lose the scent because they are blown.

As time has gone on and the conditions of hunting have changed, the huntsman has become still more important to the sport. The difficulties in the way of hunting and killing a fox are always increasing, and a huntsman cannot continue to show good sport without killing a fair proportion of the foxes he hunts. It has been said that the huntsman matters little, for, with a scent, any one can kill foxes, and without no one can. This, however, is not true. Though a moderate man can hunt a fox with a scent, he often cannot kill him. There is no moment in the chase when the coolness, judgment and woodcraft of a huntsman are more tested than when he has a sinking fox and therefore a failing scent before his hounds. Hounds know when a fox is dying and they work hard to catch him, but if then an untimely halloa get their heads up, they will not again pick up the thread of the chase which has been thoughtlessly snapped.

Take the following instance. There had been a long run, and the fox had lain down in a field of turnips. As the huntsman and hounds came into the field, the fox jumped up in view. Now, only about half the field was under turnips, the rest was—I forget what; but at all events it was open ground. The huntsman viewed the fox. Off went his cap, a shrill cheer broke from his lips, and the hounds coursed the fox to the hedge. He turned short the other side and ran up to the right, while the excited pack flashed half across the next field. The fox escaped, the thread was broken, and the hounds could only feel after the line, till at last it faded out altogether. That huntsman had found his fox well and hunted him fairly, but he could not kill him. If he had held his tongue, hounds would have had the fox in the hedgerow. We forget how much nearer the ground than ours the hound’s eyes are, and consequently how much more limited his field of vision is. It is always safer to let the hounds run their fox into view themselves.

Hunting a fox is a much more difficult task in the grass countries than it was fifty or sixty years ago. There always were, it is true, stains of sheep and cattle over the line, and there always was in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire a too eager crowd. But there were no railways