INTRODUCTION 



Since the date of the proceedings which close 

 the two first books there have been but few changes 

 in the rules of the Club. The earliest notice in the 

 Racing Calendar of the Tarporley Races, held at 

 Crabtree Green, is in 1776. On the inclosure of 

 Delamere Forest, in 1812, the present race-course 

 was rented from Lord Shrewsbury. 



In 1806 it was agreed unanimously that the 

 members should subscribe the sum of jTj, 3s, each 

 the next year for silver forks. It may appear strange 

 to our ideas that a luxury, now so universal, should 

 not have been introduced at Tarporley until the year 

 1806 ; but I am assured by a lady now living, that 

 so late as 1 809, in one of the most hospitable houses 

 in the county, a silver fork was never seen on the 

 dinner-table. 



The number of the members was eventually 

 increased to forty, and there is scarcely an old family 

 name in the county which has not at some period 

 been enrolled on the list. 



In the year 1862 the centenary anniversary of 

 the Club was celebrated ; an additional sum was 

 given to the Farmers' Stakes, and the whole county 

 were invited by the members to a ball, held at the 

 Grosvenor Hotel, Chester. 



The " Cheshire Hounds," an establishment quite 

 distinct from the Tarporley Club, originated with 

 the pack kept by Sir Peter Warburton. It seems 

 that James Smith Barry, who succeeded to his uncle's 

 property in 1784, and continued to keep hounds, 

 having in some way offended the county gentlemen, 

 in the year 1798 Mr. Egerton, of Tatton, Sir Peter 



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