184 England's oldest hunt. 



Kendall, alao of East Ness, had become master, and from 

 his epoch we come to something approaching certainty 

 and authenticity regarding fact and data. When Mr. 

 Kendall took the hounds, they had previously become 

 riotous beyond measure. The few young hounds which 

 had been entered were bred injudiciously, and it is alleged 

 even a strain of cur had been allowed to creep in and 

 remain — at any rate, puppies so tainted were entered, and 

 allowed to run with the pack. The consequence was fatal, 

 and it is on record that they once ran and killed a jackass ; 

 indeed, one old man informed the writer they would run 

 anything from a " mowdy-warp tiv an elephant " at this 

 epoch. Mr. Kendall set himself to eradicate these riotous 

 and withal dangerous hounds, and found the most drastic 

 measures alone would meet the case. Several were at once 

 sent to the gallows, and in their place came nine couples, 

 which the new M.F.H. purchased from Mr. Hill, of Thornton- 

 le-dale. Mr. Richard Hill, who lived at Thornton Hall, near 

 Pickering, began to keep hounds there in 1810, and up to his 

 death in 1858 hunted the country from Howe Bridge, near 

 Malton, to Filey, in the East Riding, and for a considerable 

 number of years, by permission of Sir Tatton Sykes, hunted a 

 portion of the Wold country from Sherburn to Hunmanby, 

 which was given up when Lord Middleton's country was 

 formed. Mr. Hill became known as a famous houndsman, both 

 in kennel and on the flags. Some drafts also came from 

 Devonshire — presumably from a pack hunting the stag — 

 as the object in view was to produce a faster and altogether 

 bigger hound — speed, yet with bone and substance. Ere 

 long the Sinnington pack were — if not altogether level at 

 the outset — a very different lot to that which Mr. Kendall 

 found on taking the reins of office. Two hounds, of which 

 he was particularly fond, because of their excellence in nose 

 and speed, were Royal and Ruby, which invariably led the 

 pack. There is still at Ness Hall a painting of a third hound, 

 Batchelor, a black and white dog. = r- '-'-- p : 



Perhaps the first huntsman of the Sinnington was Jimmy 

 Gowland, or " Golden," who for forty-six years — possibly 



