SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



place record of each day's sport, but enlivens his 

 narrative by comments, favourable or the reverse, 

 on the behaviour of his field. Thus in 1811 he 

 administers a rebuke to a gentleman who spoilt 

 a run by overriding the hounds, whom he charit- 

 ably describes as 



an excellent sportsman, who never means to do 

 wrong, but from great keenness is sometimes too for- 

 ward, which as an old sportsman I claim a right to 

 say to him. 



Again in 1825 we find him in happier vein 

 bestowing praise without stint on a hard-riding 

 clergyman — 



I cannot omit to mention that the Rev. John Monson 

 shone as conspicuously this day on his grey mare a? in 

 the pulpit, and was alone with the hounds over 

 Ainderby Mires." 



A final extract (in 1826) may be given as 

 showing that even in those days game- and 

 fox-preserving had, alas 1 become antagonistic 

 interests : 



In consequence of the innumerable foxes which Lord 

 Tyrconnel reported to me were about Kipling, and 

 attacking his hares ... I selected sixteen couples of my 

 best and steadiest hounds to go to Kipling at eleven 

 o'clock and obey his lordship's commands, when they 

 tried every myrtle, rush, whin-bush, hazel-tree, brick- 

 kiln remains, thorn-hedge, pleasure ground, and 

 pheasant preserve appurtenances without ever finding 

 a fox for nearly three hours. . . 



The last volume of The Operations of the 

 Rahy Pack was issued in 1833, by which time 

 its master, who was created Duke of Cleveland in 

 the same year, had begun to evince the first 

 symptoms of the strange dislike that characterized 

 his latter years for the sport he had formerly 

 held so dear. Hounds were kept on at Raby for 

 a few more seasons under the care of a pro- 

 fessional huntsman, but the duke's interest in 

 them and their performances gradually died away, 

 until in 1839 the once famous Raby pack, 

 quantum mutatus ! was sold at York for the in- 

 significant total of 250 guineas." 



'^ This is indeed ' approbation from Sir Hubert 

 Stanley,' for his lordship had the reputation of not 

 liking to see others in front of him in the chase, as 

 shown by the following extract from Houiell Wood : — 

 Lying close in his quarter see Scott of 



Woodhall ! 

 And mind how he cheers them with ' Hard 



to the cry I ' 

 Whilst on him the Peer keeps a pretty sharp 

 eye. 

 " It is an illustration not only of Lord Darlington's 

 devotion to fox-hunting, but also of the power formerly 

 wielded by great landowners, that in 18 18 he success- 

 fully opposed the application to Parliament for the 

 formation of the first Stockton and Darlington Rail- 

 way, on the ground that it would interfere with one of 

 his fox-coverts, and it was not until a fresh survey was 

 made, and the coverts avoided, that he withdrew his 

 opposition. 



Three years later the duke himself died in 

 London, and with him expired the last of that 

 race of masters of hounds which began with 

 Hugo Meynell and John VVarde, and elevated 

 fox-hunting from the obscure pastime of a few 

 Squire Westerns to the dignity of a great 

 national sport. 



None the less his scutcheon of sportsman is 

 not without a stain. For some years prior to his 

 death relations between himself and his eldest 

 son had become strained, and the duke hit on 

 an exceedingly characteristic method of annoy- 

 ing his heir, a man as devoted to hunting as him- 

 self. He proceeded methodically to grub up coverts 

 and exterminate foxes on his estates, a course of 

 procedure that a few years earlier he would have 

 regarded as little short of sacrilege. So thoroughly, 

 too, did he effect his purpose, that when the 

 second duke succeeded to the title, he found 

 neither foxes to hunt nor hounds to hunt them 

 with ; but, nothing daunted, he got together a 

 scratch pack of hounds, and hunted the carted 

 stag for five years, by which time the coverts 

 had re-grown to a fox-holding capacity. 



But little record exists of what may be called the 

 second period of the Raby Hunt. Its masterappears 

 to be overshadowed by his more famous father's 

 personality, while he further unfortunately omitted 

 to follow the first duke's practice of keeping a 

 hunting diary for the benefit of posterity.'* From 

 all accounts, however, the second Duke of Cleve- 

 land appears to have been a conscientious and 

 popular landlord, and an indefatigable master of 

 hounds. His huntsman was George Cox, with 

 Jack Morgan and Tom Sebright as whips. 

 Hounds were maintained at Raby until 1 86 1, 

 when the pack was sold at Tattersall's, and 

 realized good prices, the first five couples being 

 sold for 100 guineas, and three other lots at over 

 80 guineas.^' 



On resigning his country, the Duke of Cleve- 

 land proposed to divide it between the neigh- 

 bouring Durham County and Hurworth hunts — 

 to whose funds, as well as to those of the Bedale, 

 he generously contributed ;^500 a year, until his 

 death in 1864. But this offer could not be 

 accepted in its entirety, and for several years the 

 famous Raby country lay fallow and unhunted.-'^ 



" One curious custom prevailed at Raby during his 

 lifetime : on hunting days, when a fox had been killed, 

 its tongue was grilled and served up as a separate 

 course at dinner the same evening — needless to s.iy, 

 as a mere quaint conceit, and with no gastronomical 

 intention. None the less, I have it on the authority of 

 an eye-witness of the incident, that a guest, a lady 

 into the bargain, once insisted on tasting the morsel. 



" Bell's Life in London, Jan. 1873. 



^^ During this time, those keen sportsmen, Mr. 

 Cradock of Hartforth, and his neighbour Mr. Gilpin- 

 Brown of Sedbury, subscribed ^^500 a year apiece to 

 Mr. W. H. Duncombe — now Lord Feversham — the 

 then master of the Bedale, on condition he hunted the 

 Yorkshire side of the Raby country one day a week. 



391 



