46 ENGLAND'S OLDEST HUNT. 



show a more complete title to such claim than the Duke of 

 Buckingham's hunt. 



In an additional note to the latest edition of " Strutt's 

 Sports and Pastimes," the editor tells us : — 



" The keeping of public packs of hounds did not obtain in England 

 until about the close of the seventeenth century, and these packs 

 hunted the stag and hare indiscriminately. One of the first packs of 

 hounds kept solely for fox-hunting was the Hertfordshire, and it was 

 started in 1725 with Mr. John Calvert as the first Master." 



In a recent book, " With Hound and Terrier in the Field," 

 the authoress claims for a Dorsetshire pack this position, 

 and in reviewing the volume in the " Newcastle Chronicle," 

 I pointed out that we in Yorkshire contended we had the 

 first pack of foxhounds, adding " the claim is usually ad- 

 mitted." In reply to this review, I received the following 



letter : — 



Haddon Lodge, Stalybridge, Dorset. 



Dear Sir, — Thank you for the kindly review of my book. With 

 regard to the Cranborne Chase Hunt, the first Mr. Fownes bought 

 Steepleton in 1654, and kept hounds there, which were said to hunt 

 fox only in the chase. I know that Lord Arundel claims the distinction 

 as well as others, but we Dorset people give Mr. Fownes the pride of 

 place. Again thanking you, I am, yours sincerely, 



Alys. S. Serrell. 



It is one of those questions which will never be settled 

 quite satisfactorily to all parties concerned, and it is a 

 waste of space to further discuss it. I am conceited enough 

 to imagine that ere this history is completed, facts will be 

 placed before the reader which will enable him to decide 

 once and for always that the Duke of Buckingham was the 

 first to form a pack solely for hunting the fox, and that 

 whilst his early contemporaries might occasionally hunt 

 Reynard, they did not have packs exclusively for this chase, 

 as has heretofore been amply proven. 



I will first deal with the Bilsdale Hunt, since it claims 

 never to have been totally extinct since the day of the 

 Duke's death, and to have at once assumed its present 

 status on the demise of the first M.F.H. To tabulate a list 

 of the succeeding masters and huntsmen is no easy matter. 

 I find the information in " Baily's Hunting Directory," 



