MB. ROBERT LESLEY. 237 



Sinnington Hunt. prior to becoming Master, though he did not follow 

 much, as his time was occupied in the Oxford University Eight, and 

 later in coaching the crews. He retired with the rank of Lt.-Col. 

 from the Militia." 



In 1891, Mr. R. Clayton Swan, later master of 

 the Morpeth, took the mastership of the Sinnington, 

 and with his advent came a new and most important 

 chapter in the evolution of the history of the Hunt. 

 The Sinnington up to this period, like their neighbours 

 the Bilsdale and Famdale, were one of the few packs still 

 trencher-fed. Mr. Swan altered this when he came into the 

 country. Kenneling hounds at once gave the hunt a status, 

 which, despite its age, its history, and the patronage and con- 

 nection it boasted with dukes, earls, peers, and withal some of 

 the best sporting commoners in England, it had never 

 before possessed. To Mr. Swan then is due the credit of 

 introducing the new, and, I am bound to say, improved 

 order of things. I have had some little experience with 

 trencher-fed packs, and am bound to admit, what no 

 doubt is a platitude, that they are not under the same 

 discipline, nor in the same condition as kennel-fed hounds. 

 It is not to be expected, and the wonder is they are con- 

 trollable at all, and that there is not a vast more riot. It 

 stands to reason that a pack, kept by individuals, however 

 anxious they may be for the welfare of their charges and the 

 pack generally, cannot be level in speed or condition. For 

 instance, one hound has a good " walk " and gets fat, 

 another is not sufficiently fed or improperly fed ; a third 

 is kept fastened up continuously except on hunting days, 

 whilst his contemporary on the adjoining farm has permanent 

 liberty. Now how can it be expected that these hounds 

 will be equal in speed, in energy, in knowledge, or endurance ? 

 The thing is impossible, and again I say the wonder is that 

 trencher-fed packs show the sport they do. It was Mr. 

 Eames, of the Cotley Harriers, who said he could " never 

 understand how they kept the condition right in the old 

 trencher-fed packs," and he was not alone in his wonderment, 

 yet to a degree they did, and the remarkable thing is that in 

 hounds trencher-fed, one rarely finds an epidemic, and few 



