HISTORY of the ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE HUNT 'N ^N^?^\;^%.>K^

$HISTORY of the ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE HUNT 'N ^N^?^\;^%.>K^$ JOHNA.SEAVERNS TUFTS UNIVERSIIY uaH^ 3 9090 014 535 955 W'.^ ^ri*^^^r^ 'ilf'ht'^.i^k'ît HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE HUNT 'N ^N^?^\;^%.>k^ '"^ *-^ \X>-, -. History OF THE Royal Rock Beagle Hunt, NATHANIEL CAINE. Jssucii lin ûbsrription, IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE OF THE HUNT. 1895. n f5 " I think this lady to be my child Cordelia." A'l'nx' Lear, act h', scent 7. " Vour old kind father, whose frank heart jave you all," Ktii^ Leti'\ lie I Hi, scene 4. Ili:trtrati0xt TO MISS CATHERINE E. KING, ONLY DAUGHTER OF THE LATE COLONEL KING, POINT OF AYR, OXTON. To whom can any treatise on the Royal Rock Beagles be more appropriately dedicated than to her, who, during tlie later years of the Mastership of Vincent Ashfield King (who was not only her father, but also the " father of the Hunt "), was his constant companion in the field, and in his summer tramps among the Swiss mountains ? By her kind permission, this volume is respectfully dedicated to Miss King, as an acknowledgment of the indebtedness of the Ro\'al Rock Beagle Hunt to her family in the past, and to herself in the present for her unflagging interest in all that concerns the prosperity of the Hunt. May she long remain the kind friend and indulgent " " landlord of the Royal Rock Beagles ! Nathaniel Caine. I N T R D U C T I N Xo leveli'J milice infects one comma iti ihe course I hold." 'I'liKOii of Athens, net /, scene i. 51 HI'' near approach of the Jubilee Year of the [;/ /^fi,C\\; Ro\-al Rock Beagles inspired the writer with - lorniulating a record ^5^7 i the ambitious design of of the origin and progress of this famous pack of hound-. The extraordinar\- interest evir.ced b}' all past and present members of the club in anything relating to the Ro}'al Rock Beagles, must be the author's apolog\- for venturing to present this volume to their notice. lie feels that, like himself, there must be nian\- enthusiastic beaglers who will be glad to have an account of the doings and traditions of the Hunt in a convenient form. The materials available for the compilation arc somewhat meagre, consisting of the Minute Book and Sport lôok for the first ten }'ears of the existence of the Hunt, some letters and accounts preser\'cd b\' Mr. C. Rawson, and the traditions viii ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE HUNT. retained in the memories of the few orii^nnal members now living-. r\)r the information contained in the Minute and Sport Books, we are mainly indebted to the industry of the late Henry Walford, the indefati;âble Secretary to the club, and to V. A. Kinc:, the Chairman and Master, who, during that time, took the pains to record anything; connected with the R.R B. which seemed to them ?.s being of interest or worch registration. It is matter for regret that since then, and up to the present, no one has taken the trouble to systematically record the sport with the R.R.B. It would certainly be the privilege of the Master to perform this service (though it cannot be said to be his dut\'), and he alone is competent, as every circumstance of importance necessarily comes to his in the field, and knowledge ; while his constant presence management of the hounds during the sport, clearl\- point to him as the one be-t qualified to k-eep a record of the sport with the hounds. Some years ago, William Joynson, who took great interest in the R.R.B., contributed accounts of specially notable runs to the Field, under the nont dc pinine of " Little Jelly Dog"; and he was followed in a similar manner by C. Tempest Dk\on, " who wrote, and still writes, under the name of Storm." These spasmodic efforts are only of temporary interest, demanding reall\' brilliant runs to justify communication to preserved in the annals of the public press ; and, not being the Hunt, are not available for perusal by successive generations of beaglers, who would be charmed to study the systematic records of the most ordinary days' sport, when invested with tlie dignity of by-gone years. The author has had the pleasant privilege of personal interviews with several of the surviving originators of the IXTRODLTTIOX. ix R.R.lx, ;uui he hero desires to acknowledge his indebtedness especially to I\Ir. C. Rawson, who still retains a deej) interest in the pack, and who, although it is now more than forty years since he left the neighbourhood, has preserved interesting letters, newspaper cuttings, songs, photographs, and various memoranda relating to the Ro}-al Rock Beagles, all of which he freely placed at the disposal of the compiler of this volume. Christopher Rawson stands alone, so far as the writer has been able to disco\'er, in having kept an}' written or da\\s of tlie R.R.B. printed memoranda of the early ; and although Tinley Barton and \). O. Ikiteson have reminiscences, which they are willing to im])art to the ready listener, yet the great lapse of time has caused the exact details to fade from their memories, and they are unable to furnish much information about the hounds and the sport of their epoch, suitable for the purposes of this record. The author joined the Royal Rock Beagles in 1876, and thus has had the experience of nearly twenty seasons. He yields to none in his affection for the members of the Hunt. and in his intense enjoyment of the sport and the exercise to be obtained therefrom. Tlie remarks on hare-hunting and on hounds in the following pages, are culled from the best available authorities ; and if there is nothing new in them, it is because there is nothing new to be said. Somcrvile and Beckford were such thorough masters of the science of hare-hunting, that all subsequent writers have freely availed themselves of their works ; and it is only because there are many beaglers of the present day who have not read, and evidently do not X ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE HUNT. read, books on sport, that the writer has ventured to incor- porate some of the well-known axioms of the above-mentioned authors, in the hope that 'their interest in the R.R.B. will induce these beaglers to peruse this book, and lay the lessons to heart. r C C) X T E X T S " O, like a book of sport tlio\ilt read me o'er." 1 roiitts find Cressida, net Dedication Introdiction vu List or Illlstrations xii CHAT. I. IXALGfRATION OF THH ROYAL RoCK BkAGLES I II. The Formation of the Pack 8 Securing Country . 13 w. Finance . 19 V. Crises in the History of the Hunt 22 VI. The Masters .... 31 TiNLEY Barton ... 35 Christopher Rawson 37 DiTTt) as Volunteer 43 Vincent Ashfikld King - 46 Ditto as Beagle 49 Ditto as Volunteer 55 Ditto as Citizen 61 Louis Rudd Stevenson - 66 John William Macfie 68 - J. Gould S.myth ... 70 \'II. The Huntsmen .... 72 Thomas Kay -. - - - 72 Humphrey Jones 74 John Davie§ .... 76 John Vaughan 76 Charles Williams 76 Jonathan Cole 78 Frank James Davies 80 VIII. The Members .... 81 Chronological List of Members 83 Celebrities of the Hunt—Ancient 86 Ditto Medi.eval 99 Ditto Modern 104 Members, 1894-5 - . III xii ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE HUNT. CHAT. rAr.K. IX. Notable Runs - - - - - - 112 X. Lunches ...... 125 XI. The Country ...... 127 Increase of Population - - - - 129 Topography of Wirral .... iî XII. The Landlords ..... j^^^ XIII. The Farmers ...... i_^q Barbed Wire ..... 152 XIV. Shooting Men ...... 1^7 Xy. The Hounds ...... ijg Formation of a Pack - -' - • - 160 Breeding of Hounds .... 163 Hounds in Kennel - - - - - 170 R.R.B. Hounds at Work - - - - 174 The Lurcher ...... 177 XVL Hares, and Hare-Hunting .... 179 Scent - - - . - - - 190 Distribution of Hares .... 194 Cruelty of Hunting . - . - - 196 XVII. R.R.B. Visits to other Countries - - 198 XVIII. Neighbouring Packs ..... 203 The Cheshire Beagles .... 203 The Wirral Harriers - . 206 The Llangollen Harriers - - - 207 The Malpas Beagles - - . 209 ILLUSTRATIONS. TO FACE PAGE Portrait of Tinley Barton ..... 35 Ditto C. Rawson ..... 39 Ditto V. A. King ...... 52 R.R. Beaglers at Beeston ----- 86 Ditto at Whitby ..... joi Ditto at Raby - - - - - iii Cheshire Beaglers at Crewe ..... 205 Malpas Beaglers : A Kill .... - 210 *»* It is to be regretted that the reproduction of the picture of Ancient Beaglers at Beeston has not coir.e out well ; but the daguerreotype was very old and faded. However, the lithographer lias done the best he could with it. Û HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ROCK BEAGLE HUNT. CHAPTER I. IXAUta'RATION OF THE ROYAL ROCK BEAGLES. " I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. The game's afoot ; Follow your spirit. ' Kiii^ Hoiry /', act Hi, scene 2. ALF-A-CENTURY ago, on the 28th March, 1S45, a few gentlemen interested in sport met in Rock Ferry, at the house of Mr. Christopher Rawson, Junior, to inaugurate tiie now well-known pack of hounds —The Royal Rock Beagles. A montii or two earlier, I\Ir. Tinley Barton had received as a present from Mr. George Atherton, of New Brighton, three couple of small hounds. Tiicse were probably rabbit beagles, as C. Rawson says they were only thirteen-inch hounds ; and with these, Mr. Barton, accompanied by Mr. John Okell, both on horseback, hunted hares over a few Wirral farms. I'hey had taken no steps to secure a country, but merely asked permission from sucli of the farmers as they knew to allow them to hunt on their land.

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