214 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. [I85i 



Mr. George Hawkes,* of Tulton, was for a great number 

 of years a well known and remarkable eharacter amongst 

 those who hunted with the Warwickshire hounds. He was 

 not a liard rider, but he knew every inch of the country, 

 and hunted on nearly every day of the week, usually 

 accompanied by his two daughters, to one of whom 

 (Mrs. Field) we are indebted for his portrait and for some 

 extracts from her hunting diary. Mr. George Hawkes' 

 horses were all thoroughbred, and he rode them with long 

 coats, manes, and tails, exactly in their natural state, and 

 they looked as if they had come straight out of the straw- 

 yard. One of us remembers his meeting a friend of ours at 

 the covert side, mounted on a good-looking, useful, half-bred 

 horse. Mr. Hawkes, after looking him over, said, " That 

 horse is not well bred enough to carry you. This is the 

 sort which you should ride," — pointing at his own horse — 

 " thoroughbred, and neither clipped nor singed, so he can 

 get no thorns into his legs, neither can he have a sore 

 back." Of late years he used to start rather late, and he 

 told one of us one day : " Ah, now I have found the 

 hounds my sport is over." This was when he was quite 

 an old man. His get-up was rather eccentric. He always 

 wore a cap, a huntsman's red coat, and a most voluminous 

 neckcloth and frill. When a neckcloth became dirty he 

 did not change it, but he tied on a dean one over it. When 

 the meet was at Talton, the foot-people came from far 

 and wide. Beer and bread and cheese was dispensed 

 ad lib., and one of us have often seen someone of the 

 party getting a drink, and then shifting his place lower 

 down the railings for another horn, and so on. 



Mr. Hawkes was a great advocate for giving plenty of 

 air to horses. The Rev. Francis Annesley told one of us 

 that he was on one occasion at Talton, on a very cold day, 

 when he remarked to Mr. Hawkes that the greater part of 



* Mr. George Hawkes, two hours before bis death, sent for Mr. Eushout, the 

 Master of the North Cotsvrold Hounds, who was a great friend of his, and, knowing 

 that his end was near, and not having his cheque-book handy, took up a piece of paper 

 close by him and wrote a cheque of 10/. for the Hunt. It had been on his mind, he 

 said, and now that he had made the payment he felt happy. — C. M. 



