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i|ill|!ll|l||lll|illl! il|llilllilililllllllllil{lil!iliiini!llilll!llllltllilllllilllllillllli!!l!|||||l!!!IIIIIH JOHNA.SEAVERNS FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE — — BY THE SAME AUTHOR Uniform in Size and Price with this Volume GOOD SPORT SEEN WITH SOME FAMOUS PACKS 1885-1910 With TEN PLATES (SIX IN COLOUR) Numerous Illustrations in the Text AND A HUNTING NOTE BY THE Right Hon. HENRY CHAPLIN, M.P. EX-M.F.H. BLANKNEY Contents:— Peterborough Memories, 1881-1909—The Quornat Kirby Gate —With Frank Gillard on a Lenton Brook Day—With the Cottesmore and George Gillson —A Hunt with the Duke of Beau- fort—Good Grey Hunters—Blankney Reminiscences of Six Master- ships—Mr Charles M'Neill and the North Cotswold—Two Belvoir and Quorn Joint Runs, 1884 and 1908—With the Earl of Lonsdale in the Woodland Pytchley Country—The Cambridge- shire Past and Present— Fox-hunting Jehus—Yorkshire Hunters and Hounds— With the Cottesmore and Arthur Thatcher—The Marquis of Exeter's Hounds—With the Belvoir from Coston Covert to Woodvvell Head—Notes from the Belvoir Kennel. An interesting volume of hunting experiences covering a wide area of interest, including the opinions on hunting and hounds of many authorities whose names are household words in the annals of the chase. Forsaking history, and breathing the atmosphere of the field, every chapter happily blends the past with the present. On every page we meet the names of friends who have hunted with one or other of the packs up and down England during the past quarter of a century. Profusely illustrated throughout, the author seizes passing events and impressions while in the full enjoyment of a hunt, and each chapter has its complete story for those who would pass a splendid interval with some favourite pack of hounds. "The volume will at once take its place among the first favourites in the fox-hunter's library. Nothing but the superlatively good has found admis- sion to these pages. It is good literature and good sport, a not invariable association. The author is just as clever with his pen or pencil in another way, that of the artist. It is a book to buy and to dip into often." The Sportsman. "The book is one over which hunting men will linger with delight." TJic Badminton Magazine. "Ought to be welcomed by every man or woman who lovts hunting the fox for the sake of the thrills and thousand delights of this grand English sport." Daily Tetegraph. GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED o w H 5 FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE WITH MANY NOTED PACKS A COMPANION VOLUME TO 'GOOD SPORT, SEEN WITH SOME FAMOUS PACKS' BY CUTHBERT BRADLEY 'WHIPSTER' OF THE FIELD AUTHOR OF 'FRANK GILLARU's REMINISCENCES' WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY CAPTAIN E. PENNELL ELMHIRST EX-MASTER OF THE WOODLAND PYTCHLEY AND 'EROOKSBY' OF THE FIELD WITH THIRTEEN PLATES (SIX IN COLOUR) AND OVER ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT THE TEXT LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited NEW YORK: E. P. BUTTON AND CO. 19 I 2 — PREFACE Many of these chapters have been prompted by kind friends and companions of the chase, to whom I am indebted for instructive hours spent with hounds. That the experiences of sport enjoyed with the Belvoir and many other packs, now appear as a volume, is due to the fact that it has been my privilege to chronicle the doings of the chase for the sporting-press, during many seasons hunting. My best thanks, for courtesy received from kindly editors, to reproduce many a story and picture of sport, I gratefully subscribe to the Field, Land and Water, The County Gentleman, Graphic, Daily Graphic, Vanity Fair, Sporting Pictorial, Crown, Grantham Joitrnal, Peterborough Advertiser, Sports- man, Baily's Magazine, and Fores Magazine. Two of the illustrations from the pencil of my father, the late " Cuthbert Bede," are of historical interest ; for many made at the same period have been acquired by collectors. To my brother, the Rev. H. W. Bradley, vicar of Wrenbury, Cheshire ex-whipper-in of beagles, and follower of the Belvoir and Cheshire whenever a horse is available—I am indebted for valuable help, when editing this volume. Lastly, I realise that Captain Pennell Elmhirst, "Brooksby" of the Field, for forty seasons the acknowledged chief of hunting correspondents, has — vi FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE bestowed a great honour to these efforts of mine, by writing the Introduction. Once more I would thank kind sportsmen and critics who last year made the first volume of this hunting series " Good Sport seen with many famous packs, " 1885-1910 —an encouraging success both at home and abroad. CUTHBERT BRADLEY. Forrard," the watchword of the Chase CONTENTS Preface ..... v List of Plates ix Introduction xi CHAPTER I Peterborough and the Fitzwilliam Hunt . i CHAPTER II A Hunt in Durham with the Braes of Derwent . 31 CHAPTER III The Stainton Dale, when a Trencher-fed Pack, and One-Horse Hunt 42 CHAPTER IV Mr Gerald Hardy and the Modernised Meynells . 54 CHAPTER V Atherstone Hound Notes—A Hunt with Sir William Cooke and the Southwold— Steeplechasing in Lord Harrington's Country 69 CHAPTER VI The Cheshire under the Duke of Westminster's Mastership 82 CHAPTER VII Sport with the Blankney Hounds, Sir Robert Filmer and Tom Isaac 100 CHAPTER VIII Two Good Runs with Sir Gilbert Greenall and the Belvoir Hounds 112 viii FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE CHAPTER IX PAGE Mr G. Smith-Bosanquet's Hertfordshire Pack . .124 CHAPTER X The Quorn under Captain Frank Forester . -135 CHAPTER XI Two Fox-up-a-Chimney Hunts with the Belvoir, 1891 and 1910 147 CHAPTER XII The Cottesmore, Lord Lonsdale, and the Beauties of Barleythorpe 169 CHAPTER XIII A Day with Mr E. A. V. Stanley and the Woodland Pytchley 189 CHAPTER XIV Some Yorkshire Hunting Notes—Lord Middleton's, The Holderness, The Bedale, The Sinningtox, and The Hon. H. Vane's Hounds 201 CHAPTER XV A Hunt with Lord Annaly, Frank Freeman and the Pytchley Hounds 227 CHAPTER XVI The Sires of the Belvoir Kennel during Sir Gilbert Greenall's Mastership, 1896-1912 238 Index 257 LIST OF PLATES The Barleythorpe Toast Fro7itispiece From a picture in the possession of the Earl of Lonsdale, M.F.H. Tofacejiage The Rev. Cecil Legard 29 By permission of Vanity Fair. The Cheshire Hunt and the King of Spain ... 84 From a picture in the possession of Colonel W. Hall Walker, M. P. Chester Castle and City Walls in 1849 .... 97 From a picture in the possession of Colonel W. Hall Walker, M.P. Lady Irene Denison on "Onyx," with the Blankney . 100 From a picture in the possession of the Countess of Londes- BOROUGH. Sir Gilbert Greenall, Master of the Belvoir . 112 By permission of Vayiity Fair. KiRBY Gate 135 By permission of Vanity Fair. Lady Greenall on "Winning Post," in Command of the Belvoir 158 From a picture in the possession of Sir Gilbert Greenall, M.F.H. Mrs Jefferson from Stoke Park, with the Belvoir . 160 From a picture in the possession of Mrs Jefferson. Miss Jefferson's "Jumping Grey" 160 From a picture in the possession of Mrs Jefferson. Mr E. W. Griffith on " Penlev," Field ALaster to the Belvoir 164 From a picture in the possession of Mrs E. W. Griffith. The Pytchley Hounds, with Frank Freeman, greeting THE Master, Lord Annaly 228 Belvoir Helper 253 By permission of the Field. — INTRODUCTION " Help us to read in the pastime we treasure Something that raises mankind as we write ; Something above a mere craving for pleasure, Shade of ^^"hyte-Melville, it'll lead us aright. Help us to find in the soul-stirring chorus^ \\ hich rings through the woodlands, and floats through the sky, Something that brightens the pathway before us ; Spirit of friendship ! still stir us to try." —Mr W. Phillpotts Williams, M.F.H. To combine talent of pencil with facility of pen and story, is not given to many—but the author is so gifted—and his readers may enjoy the best of sport in these galloping pages. The power of worthily depicting a foxhound on the flags—as he should be, or in the individual instance, as he may be—alone puts Mr Cuthbert Bradley in a foremost place. He knows, and conveys the why and where- fore of requisite shapeliness, as perhaps only a pupil of Frank Gillard could, to the satisfaction of modern-day critics. It is a creed that the best at Belvoir is the best of foxhound symmetry each section of the admirable frame being specially adapted to the carrying out of the work required. The foxhound in action is another study, so that an artist must be also a sportsman, and a practical rider to hounds, as in the present instance. Add to this, that the volume is embellished with char- acter sketches of well-known hunting men in many xii FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE counties ; it will be granted that there is ample material to gratify the eye and rouse the interest of the sportsman. Works on active sport are all the more attractive for being fitly illustrated—fox- hunting especially lending itself to such develop- ment—and when the illustrations are in the hands of the author, they lighten and brighten his story. " BROOKSBY " (Captain E. Pennell Elmhirst). Blisworth^ Northamptonshire, December 191 1. Frank Gillard, 1870 to 1896, huntsman to the Duke of Rutland's Hounds — A—• FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE CHAPTER I PETERBOROUGH AND THE FITZWILLIAM HUNT The King patron of the Peterborough Foxhound Show—Sport and agri- culture meet in the summer at Peterborough—The ancient history of the Church and the Chase, by Cuthbert Bede—Bishops and Abbots hunting their packs of hounds from parish to parish, iioo—The multitudinous duties of the clergy to-day, 191 1 —The Bishop of Peterborough's sympathy with the chase and Tom Firr's testimonial —King Edward VII.

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