MR. THOMAS PARRINGTON. 221 



the Hunt, and sometimes contributed to the local press under the 

 nom-de-plume of " Harkaway." 



When Mr. Parrington commenced his novitiate in the 

 beautiful Cleveland vale he formed one of a coterie of sports- 

 men who recognised what I am afraid is greatly lost sight 

 of now-a-days — the facts presented in the comprehensive 

 couplet : — 



Though keenly excited I bid you remember 

 That hunting's a science and riding's an art. 



So from the very outset he was more than a mere follower 

 of hounds. He became an intelligent and thoughtful ob- 

 server, and these observations of various men, and their 

 manners of different packs, and their idiosyncracies, stood 

 him in good stead when he at last came to hunt and control 

 a pack himself. The grandson of a former Vicar of Skelton, 

 Mr. Parrington was born at Middlesbrough on June 20, 

 1818, at a time when his birth-place was one of the few 

 houses to represent what is now one of the most important 

 commercial centres in the North. The Parringtons, indeed, 

 tilled the soil upon which a portion of Middlesbrough now 

 stands — in 1829 this farm was practically the only house 

 on the site where now over 100,000 souls are to be found. 

 Unique is the history of the evolution of Middlesbrough, 

 which Mr. Gladstone once referred to as " an infant, but an 

 infant Hercules." Strange, indeed, then, is it to read that in 

 Mr. Parrington's youth — in the memory of living man — f oxes 

 were found here, and we find that on Friday, March 24, 

 1820, hounds " tried all round Middlesbrough blank." 

 Again, in " Baily's Magazine " (1872), a correspondent 

 referred to this evolution and to the Parrington's farm thus : 

 Middlesbrough, counting its forty thousand inhabitants, was a 

 solitary farm in 1828, where the foxes had a favourite breeding earth, 

 and were well taken care of. It was the practice of the Cleveland 

 Hunt to begin the season at Middlesbrough, where they always found 

 one litter of cubs at least in Mr. Parrington's turnips. 



Writing in June, 1906, Mr. Parrington says : — 

 " Hence Middlesbrough was chosen year after year as the meet 

 for the opening day. Mr. John Andrew was then Master of the Cleve- 

 land Hounds, assisted by his sons, John and James, and Jack Harrison 



