SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



this part the going is heavy in wet weather, the 

 land being mostly clay. There are extensive 

 coverts and the fences are strong, many of them 

 being of the stake and binder description, while 

 the numerous ditches require a good deal of 

 negotiation. More galloping is to be had on 

 the Derbyshire side, where the country is for the 

 most part open with flying fences. On this side 

 there is plenty of grassland, which affords some 

 of the best of going, and a fast horse with ability 

 to jump is the most useful. Mr. F. Armstrong 

 of Mansfield is the honorary secretary. 



THE SOUTH NOTTS 



The destinies of the South Notts, or, as it 

 is now called, Lord Harrington's Hunt, were 

 bound up with that sporting family, the Mus- 

 ters, for over a century of its long and honour- 

 able history, for the country was originally 

 founded on business lines by Mr. John Musters 

 in the year 1775. More than a hundred years 

 before that time, however, the South Notting- 

 hamshire country had been included in that 

 immense area over which the fourth Earl of 

 Lincoln held sway, but it can hardly be claimed 

 that the sport of that period has any particular 

 connexion with present-day foxhunting so far 

 as concerns Lord Harrington's territory. His- 

 tory is silent for the space of more than a cen- 

 tury prior to 1/75, and we may safely conclude 

 that if the country was hunted at all no organized 

 pack of foxhounds was in existence. 



But from 1775 onwards the history of the 

 South Nottinghamshire country is fairly clear, 

 and with the exception of a break of about fifteen 

 years from 1845 to 1860 it has always main- 

 tained a pack of foxhounds of considerable fame. 

 Mr. John Musters, the great-grandfather of the 

 noted John Chaworth Musters, hunted his pack 

 for a period of thirty years, and when his son, 

 John Musters the second, succeeded him in 1805, 

 the family interest in fox-hunting was well main- 

 tained. Between the years 1805 and 1845 

 Mr. John Musters occupied the position of mas- 

 ter for a period, off and on, of over a quarter of 

 a century. 



His first mastership lasted from 1805 to 1810, 

 when he sold the hounds and gave up the country. 

 During his term of office he had greatly improved 

 the already good pack of hounds that his father 

 had left him, and it is not quite certain what 

 the country did for a pack during the next four 

 seasons. After Mr. Musters gave up, Mr. 

 George Osbaldeston took hold for a time, but 

 the hunt seems to have been in no very flourish- 

 ing condition until Mr. Musters again came to 

 the rescue in or about the year 1814. He then 

 set to work to form a fresh pack, with which he 

 hunted the country for some seasons. From 

 1821 to 1827, however, we find him in the 

 Pytchley country, to which he is said to have 



transported his pack bodily, selling them after- 

 wards to Lord Middleton. According to one 

 account Mr. Musters stayed with the South 

 Nottinghamshire till 1823, but whether this be 

 so or not, he was succeeded by Mr. L. Rolleston 

 in that year, and for four more seasons the pack 

 managed to exist without him. 



Once more in 1827 Mr. Musters came 

 back to his original country and stayed for eight 

 seasons, the sixth Lord Middleton coming on the 

 scene in or about the year 1835. It is not 

 quite certain whether Mr. Musters sold his pack 

 to Lord Middleton at this time or at an earlier 

 date, but Lord Middleton was hunting a pack 

 of his own in his own country from 1832 to 

 1834. These were hounds which he had bought 

 of Sir Tatton Sykes in the former year, and it 

 does not seem likely that he brought them away 

 with him, for Sir Tatton again took over Lord 

 Middleton 's country in 1834. Probably, there- 

 fore, the sale of Mr. Musters' hounds to Lord 

 Middleton took place in that year. After Lord 

 Middleton came Mr. Dansey, and then Mr. 

 Musters entered upon his fourth and last term 

 of mastership, which lasted for five seasons from 

 1840 to 1845. 



At this point occurred the interregnum of 

 sixteen seasons, during which the country must 

 have suffered considerably. Throughout that 

 long time nobody came forward to revive the 

 past glories of the hunt, and it seemed as though 

 the country would remain vacant for ever. At 

 length, however, another member of the Mus- 

 ters family came to the rescue, Mr. John 

 Chaworth Musters establishing a new pack in 

 1860 and controlling the country for eight 

 seasons. When he handed over the reins of 

 management to Mr. J. L. Francklin in 1868 

 the hunt was firmly established once more, and he 

 left behind him a pack of even greater excellence 

 than that which had bsen hunted by his great- 

 grandfather. Mr. Musters purchased several 

 good drafts at sales, notably in 1862 when the 

 pack of Mr. Tom Drake was dispersed, and the 

 Colwick kennels at the time of his departure 

 boasted some of the best blood in the kingdom. 



In 1868 Mr. Musters went to the Quorn, 

 taking his pack with him ; and he showed some 

 remarkable sport in that country before his. 

 return to the South Nottinghamshire in 1871. 

 Meanwhile, Mr. Francklin had been hunting 

 the latter country with a pack of his own, but 

 on Mr. Musters' return hounds were kennelled 

 at Annesley and were hunted from there for a 

 period of five years. In 1876 Mr. Chaworth 

 Musters' second mastership came to an end, his 

 successors being Mr. P. H. Cooper and Mr. 

 Lancelot Rolleston, who built new kennels at 

 Gedling near Nottingham. The partnership 

 lasted for five seasons, Mr. Cooper retiring in 

 1 88 1, after which Mr. Rolleston kept on the 

 hounds for one more season. During this time 



385 



49 



