A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



POLO 



The Northampton Club, founded i May, 

 1905, has its ground close to the Northampton 

 Castle Station ; it is considered one of the 

 best grounds out of London. Matches are 

 regularly played with the Market Harborough, 



Bedford, Weedon Garrison, Manchester, and 

 other teams. The membership is not large. 



The Weedon Club is maintained by the 

 officers of the regiments that may be stationed 

 at that town. 



NOTE 



The article on shooting, it will be seen, refers 

 exclusively to north Northamptonshire ; there 

 is practically no history attached to the sport 

 of shooting in the southern and western parts 

 of the county. Even before the days of mow- 

 ing and reaping machines it was naturally poor 

 partridge country, and the hedgerow pheasant, 

 never plentiful, has vanished before high farm- 

 ing and modern methods of agriculture. From 

 time to time there has been game preserving 

 on the Spencer estate, but not such as requires 

 special description. Little has been attempted 

 on the Grafton estates ; the duke has at 

 Euston in Suffolk a first-rate shooting property, 

 and the woods at Wakefield are best known 



as fox coverts. There has been no preserva- 

 tion of any kind at Fawsley, and what exists on 

 smaller estates is comparatively recent and has 

 been at no time extensive. There was, indeed, 

 a good deal of expenditure in this direction at 

 Whittlebury in the days of the late Lord 

 Southampton, but the local conditions were by 

 no means favourable and the endeavour was 

 not continued. The coverts dotted over the 

 Grafton country now and then hold a wood- 

 cock, but the fact that a bag of seven in one 

 season in Sewell Wood is cited as memorable 

 has its own significance. There is the very 

 greatest difference between the northern and 

 southern parts of the county in this matter. 



396 



