THE ORANGE COUNTY 



County and Meadow Brook hounds, carrying the horn. The following 

 season the hounds were again in charge of a committee, with Mr. E. S. 

 Craven ably filling Mr. Griswold's position ; the latter having resigned. 



Such good sport was enjoyed during these seasons that the originators 

 felt that the time had come to expand, and if possible, to devote much of 

 the season to the better sport of fox-hunting. With this object in view, 

 the Hunt was re-organized and put on a financial basis which enabled it to 

 procure suitable wanter quarters in the south, where the season was longer 

 and the country more suited to the purpose. 



In 1 903, then, Mr. John R. Townsend was elected M. F. H., and im- 

 mediately turned his attention to developing the southern country. Excel- 

 lent kennels and extensive stabling were located at the Plains, Fauquier 

 County, Virginia, while a pleasant clubhouse was built for the accommoda- 

 tion of the members. A number of men from northern Hunts whose lo- 

 cation did not allow them to do any winter hunting, joined the Orange 

 County, and enjoyed the sport so much that the Fields have steadily grown. 

 Mr. TowTisend, whose heart and soul is in the sport, has spent a great deal 

 of time experimenting on the best type of hound for the country ; in fact it 

 was he who offered the cup which was the trophy competed for in 1 905, 

 when the Middlesex and Grafton hounds held their memorable match in a 

 section of the Piedmont Hunt country. The former pack made its head- 

 quarters at Middleburg, some ten miles north of the Orange County kennels 

 at the Plains, and the next season, Mr. Townsend, finding that the country 

 about the Plains was insufficient for his operations, aided in forming what 

 is known as the Middleburg Hunt, which is nothing more nor less than an 

 offshoot of the Orange County. Mr. Percy Evans was elected M. F. H. 

 of the new Hunt, which has a long list of the landowners about Middleburg 

 on its roll of members, but it is impossible to give the history of the Orange 

 County Hunt without bringing in this offshoot. 



The country hunted by the Orange County pack, proper, differs some- 

 what in character from the Middleburg country already described, in that 

 the fencing is bigger and less negotiable, much of it being practically unjump- 

 able because of the sunken roads which intersect some portions. 



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