THE ROSE TREE 



Capt. Samuel Morris was elected President, and it was he and twenty- 

 one other members who organized the First City Troop of Philadelphia City 

 Cavalry. Capt. Morris's negro slave, old " Natty," served the Club as 

 kennelman and huntsman from 1 769 until the Revolution. The uniform of 

 the Club, adopted in I 774, was a "dark brown cloth coatee with lapelled 

 dragoon pockets, white buttons and frock sleeves, buff waistcoat and 

 breeches and black velvet cap." In 1775, the pack consisted of fifteen and 

 a half couples of hounds and in 1 778, when the kennels were on the Dela- 

 ware, near Gloucester Point, of sixteen couples. Just what type these 

 hounds were it would be very interesting to know, but it seems probable 

 that they were very similar to the hounds used in England for fox-hunting 

 at that time. If this was the case, it is curious to note the development in 

 the two countries, for today, the Rose Tree hounds are of the so-called 

 American type, which, of course, is vastly different from the existing English 

 type, and yet both could probably trace back to the same parent stock. 

 This old Club survived until 1818 and existed fifty-two years. 



Delaware and Chester counties, which were not divided until 1 789, 

 comprise probably the longest-hunted district in Pennsylvania. Men living 

 within a few years past, have told us of fox-hunts they witnessed when boys 

 in Middletown, Aston and Concord Townships, when Charley Pennell, 

 Nicholas and Joseph Fairlamb, "Squire" Baldwin and Antony Baker were 

 noted hunters, and later, we learn of hunts from the Black Horse and Anvil 

 Taverns, the latter in part of the township which is now Media. An hon- 

 orary member of the Rose Tree Hunt also kept hounds many years ago and 

 George W. Hill, at one time M. F. H., began his hunting with him about 

 1830. 



From George E. Darlington, the author of a book entitled " The Origin and 

 History of the Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club," from which has been drawTi 

 much of our information regarding the Rose Tree, we learn that Charles 

 Pennell, who was born about I 760, kept hounds from his earliest manhood. 



" We heard of him," says Mr. Darlington, " from a gentleman who was 

 born in 1 797, and who, when a small boy, was watching with his brothers 

 the hounds running over the hills on his father's farm early one morning, 



ito 



