THE ROSE TREE 



that Charley Pennell came riding to them on a good young horse that had 

 never hunted before and which he put at a low worm fence and that the 

 horse refused to take it. At Mr. Pennell's request, the boys cut a stout 

 stick for him, and with this persuader he drove his horse at the fence again 



and went blundering on after the hounds Few farmers objected to 



hunting over their lands, and generally they were fond of seeing the hunt and 

 hearing the hounds in full cry, and this love of the sport is illustrated by the 

 fact that a farmer named Jesse Russell, living in Edgmont township and 

 whose farm contained a well wooded round-top called Hunting Hill, a 

 favorite retreat for foxes, when on his death-bed requested that he should be 

 buried on Hunting Hill, where he could hear the hounds running. He was 

 buried on the north side of this hill, and afterward the spot was adopted 

 as a family burying-ground and so still remains, with a wall of native 

 stone around it, which is fast going to decay, but which some of the 

 fox-hunting clubs of the county propose to rebuild and put in good 

 condition."* 



In the winter of 1 852-3, Mr. J. Howard Lewis and Mr. George Darling- 

 ton began fox-hunting. At that time Jim Burns and Ned Engle of Chester, 

 John Mahoney of Rockdale, George Powell of Springfield, Jones and 

 Hunter Moore of Haverford, Dan Abrahams and Bill and Tom Crossley 

 of Radnor, Chandler Thomas and Pratt and Washington Bishop of Upper 

 Providence, Bill Noble of Ridley, Jesse Hickman of Thornbury, William 

 Grant and Levis Speakman, of Birmingham, William Hannon of Aston, 

 Osborn Booth of Concord and James Pmkerton of Gradyville, all kept 

 packs of hounds, sometimes hunting together as a " trencher-fed " pack and 

 sometimes taking their own hounds out for the amusement of their friends 

 and themselves. Messrs. Lev^as and Darlington had four or five couples of 

 their own which they hunted together until the Rose Tree Club was 

 organized m 1 859 by the election of J. Howard Lewis as President, George 

 E. Darlington as Secretary, and J. Morgan Baker as Treasurer. Every 

 member of the Club was an active and trained fox-hunter, well qualified to 

 hunt the hounds by practical experience, and no Master of hounds or hunts- 



This intention has been carried out. — The authors. 



161 



