2IO CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



I ought, perhaps, to mention that the celebrated 

 Billesdon Coplow run with Mr. Meynell's Hounds in 

 Leicestershire took place on February 24th, 1800, 

 and therefore does not belong to the present century. 

 But the Sersay Wood run, with Sir Mark Master- 

 man Sykes' Hounds, on Monday, April 7th, 1806, is 

 still spoken of with pride in Yorkshire, while many 

 fox-hunters must have read the Hon, Martin-Bladen 

 Hawke's poem, " Sersay Wood " — 



" Fam'd Sersay ! whose woodlands have long been renowned, 

 Whose foxes themselves with such honour have crowned." 



Unfortunately, the exact distance and time of the 

 run are not given in the poem or in the York 

 Herald's account of the run, which was published on 

 the following Saturday ; but the run is chiefly re- 

 markable for the fact that the fox, after running a 

 distance of over twelve miles up wind, breasted and 

 got to the top of Hambleton Rocks. Out of a field 

 of one hundred and fifty sportsmen who started only 

 seven were up at the top of Hambleton, namely 

 Will Carter, the huntsman. Sir F. Boyton, Messrs. 

 Treacher, Hawke, Best, Lascelles, and Batty. 



Perhaps one of the longest, if not the longest, 

 hunting run of the century took place on September 

 28th, 1855, with the Exmoor Staghounds, This was 

 the first season of Mr. Bisset's Mastership, and 

 though it was not till 1880 that I was entered to 

 stag and introduced to the M.S.H., I had many 

 opportunities of listening to his accounts of former 



