A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



and 1 2^ couple young hounds. These hounds 

 were very irregularly named, the first letter of 

 the name beingsometimes that of the sire, some- 

 times of the dam, and sometimes of neither. 



On 10 February, 1842, the bitch pack met 

 at Showsley Grounds. ' It was this day known 

 that Mr. T. Assheton Smith had bought the 

 pack, and engaged Carter and Dickens.' The 

 great merit of the hounds at this time was 

 entirely due to Carter, and Assheton Smith 

 was only too glad, as he said, to buy ' the 

 hounds and George Carter.' Carter was a 

 very fine huntsman, with great perseverance, 

 though not always fast. It is said of him that, 

 even when there was no scent he would walk 

 a fox to death. 



When the duke, in the spring of 1842, sold 

 the hounds to Mr. Assheton Smith, Charles, 

 Lord Southampton, came forward, and pur- 

 chased from Mr. Harvey Coombe the pack of 

 hounds from the Old Berkeley, which he had 

 bought from Mr. Osbaldeston, when the latter 

 gentleman gave up hunting the Pytchley in 

 1834. At this time the country was divided 

 between Lord Southampton and Mr. William 

 Selby Lowndes, of Whaddon, and Lord 

 Southampton for the time took the Fawsley 

 portion of the Pytchley country. Lord South- 

 ampton engaged Harry Taylor as huntsman, 

 Tom Flint as first whip, and George Wells as 

 second whip. The sport was not good, 

 and next year Will Derry became huntsman 

 with two new whippers-in, but there was no 

 great improvement. In 1844 Lord South- 

 ampton took back Ned Rose, the old huntsman, 

 who had been keeping an hotel, but he only 

 carried the horn for one season. He was 

 succeeded first by Baxall, then by Jack Jones 

 the first whip, and in 1 845 by Butler, a York- 

 shire huntsman. 



In 1847 Lord Southampton purchased Lord 

 Shannon's pack of hounds from Ireland, and 

 Tom Smith and a whipper-in came with them. 

 With new huntsman and hounds the sport 

 improved, and Mr. Elliott mentions a very 

 good run which occurred on the last Monday 

 in March, 1848. In the afternoon hounds 

 drew Badby Wood, and the fox went away 

 over Newnham brook. Leaving Newnham 

 on the left, they crossed the London road, and, 

 leaving Watford gorse on the right, ran 

 straight to Sulby without touching a covert on 

 the way. This would be a long point, and if 

 the hounds had killed the run would have been 

 the best during Lord Southampton's master- 

 ship, but the fox managed to beat the hounds 

 and save his brush. The run, however, was 

 at the time considered an excellent one. 



In 1848 George Beers became huntsman, 

 and showed some very good sport for three 



seasons, when he went back to the Oakley 

 hounds. Beers was succeeded by Ben Morgan, 

 one of Sir Richard Sutton's whips, who, 

 though a fine horseman, was not an ideal 

 huntsman. Mr. Elliott gives an account of 

 the hounds hunting a bag fox from Braddon 

 Pond one day. Though Druid, one of the 

 best hounds, would not hunt, Morgan never 

 found out that he had been pursuing a bagman. 

 After Morgan came Dick Simpson, with Bob 

 Ward as first, and Tom Carr as second whip. 

 Simpson had been huntsman to the Puckeridge 

 Hounds, and proved a great success in the 

 Grafton country ; he was one of the few men 

 who could satisfactorily catch a woodland fox. 

 During cub hunting in Simpson's first season, a 

 Haversham Wood fox ran through Gayhurst 

 Wood, Stoke Park, between Quinton and 

 Preston Deanery, and through Houghton Field 

 almost to Northampton, where he was killed. 

 The distance was about 1 1 miles, without a 

 check, hounds running perfectly. Simpson 

 only stayed a couple of seasons, and was fol- 

 lowed by George Beers, who came back from 

 the Oakley and once more carried the horn 

 with the Grafton. He had as whippers-in 

 Ward and Carr. 



For some reason Lord Southampton was 

 always changing his huntsmen and whips, but 

 the sport was not good until George Beers re- 

 turned ; he improved both hounds and foxes. 



In 1850 Lord Southampton purchased a 

 number of hounds from the Badminton pack, 

 but Beers did not think much of them. A little 

 later more hounds were purchased from York- 

 shire, some of which proved good and useful. 

 After a time Bob Ward left to hunt with 

 Mr. J. Gerard Leigh, and Tom Carr became 

 first whip. He was followed in i86o by 

 George Beers' son Frank, and the father was 

 able to teach him lessons which proved most 

 useful when a few years later he hunted the 

 Grafton hounds. George Beers was a right 

 good huntsman, and the trainer of some good 

 huntsmen ; he had wonderful health, and 

 never missed a day's hunting through illness. 



At this time Mr. Selby Lowndes took the 

 southern, and Lord Southampton still con- 

 tinued to hunt the northern part of the 

 country. 



In the spring of 1862 Lord Southampton 

 sold his hounds to Mr. Selby Lowndes, and 

 the Grafton country was without master, 

 huntsman, or hounds. William Henry Fitz- 

 Roy, Earl of Euston, however, came forward 

 and offered to hunt the country, and appointed 

 Frank Beers as his huntsman. Lord Euston 

 succeeded as the sixth duke of Grafton on 

 26 March, 1863, and thus once again a lord 

 of Wakefield became master. 



370 



