3i6 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-FIUNTING 



Valentia, Colonel of the Oxfordshire Yeomanry, was 

 Master of the Bicester from 1872 till 1885. He is 

 in his fifty-eighth year, but is as keen a sportsman 

 as ever. Lord Harris, Colonel Commanding the East 

 Kent Yeomanry Cavalry, is fifty. He is better 

 known as a cricketer than as a hunting man, but 

 he is a good man to hounds, and is generally to be 

 seen in the first flight. The Duke of Marlborough 

 was only twenty-nine this November, but is a familiar 

 figure in the first flight with the Quorn, where he is 

 celebrated for riding greys. The Honourable T. A. 

 Brassey is in the West Kent Yeomanry. Mr. Ralph 

 Sneyd, the owner of Keele Park and founder of 

 Keele Park Races, has gone to South Africa with his 

 Yeomanry regiment ; and Major Dalbiac, of Ports- 

 mouth Park, well known at one time between the 

 flags and as a good man to hounds, has, alas ! been 

 slain in the service of his country. Captain Pennell- 

 Elmhirst, better known to our readers as " Brooksby," 

 also went out to serve his country. 



Let me state in this place that Welsh and Devon- 

 shire horses standing fifteen hands are more service- 

 able in guerilla warfare than the thoroughbreds, who 

 can hold their own in the first flight in Leicestershire. 

 It is not often that we meet a hunter who is capable 

 of being made into a charger at a moment's notice. 



While arranging my notes for this chapter, it was 

 with the most sincere regret that I learnt of the 

 death of Major H. S. Dalbiac, who was commanding 

 the Middlesex Yeomanry in South Africa. He was 



