x INTRODUCTION 



to those outside the craft, but we know that it is impossible 

 for a good sportsman to be cruel. A fox-hunter may love 

 the fox, but he loves the hound more, and he cannot spare 

 the life of one without being cruel to the other. 



Peter Beckford, born in 1740, was the son of Julines Beck- 

 ford, whose brother William was the celebrated Lord Mayor 

 and father of the author of Vathek. Five years after the 

 birth of Peter his father purchased the house and manor 

 of Stapleton, or Stepleton-Iwerne, in Dorsetshire, together 

 with certain rights in Cranbourn Chase, from Thomas 

 Fownes, who bought it from George Pitt in 1654. This 

 Mr. Fownes appears to have been an excellent sportsman, 

 and was one of the first masters who kept a pack exclusively 

 for hunting the fox. He was also one of the pioneers in 

 the scientific breeding of the fox-hound, and his pack was 

 supposed to have been the most perfect in England, not only 

 for looks, but for the style in which they hunted a fox. 

 Like many other good men who have devoted a lifetime 

 to sport, he took no thought of riches for himself, and in the 

 end want of money forced him to sell his estate. Mr. Bowes, 

 of Yorkshire, bought the pack for what at that date was 

 considered an enormous price, but their subsequent history 

 I have not been able to trace, though it is unlikely masters 

 of that day would allow blood to be wasted which had 

 proved itself to be good. 



Julines Beckford does not appear to have kept a regular 

 pack of hounds, but as his boyhood had been spent in 

 Jamaica, it was perhaps a form of amusement that he did 

 not understand. We, however, read that he appointed 

 keepers to look after the deer in certain parts of Cranbourn 

 Chase, so that it is evident he was interested in sport. 



Young Peter must have been initiated early into the 

 mysteries of sport, and we can imagine him as a boy with a 

 few couple of the ancient breed of buck-hounds pursuing the 

 deer in Cranbourn Chase. We are told these hounds were 



