BILSDALE AND SINNINGTON. 135 



but there is no sulking or shirking, and a hound 

 has never been known to shp off home till the 

 day's sport was over. 



Trencher-fed hounds, it is said, have more 

 courage and independence than those which are 

 kennel kept, and if not under such firm control, 

 still by the very fact of their independence 

 frequently turn a moderate day's sport into a 

 good one. Be this as it may, the Sinnington 

 hounds show as good sport as their neighbours, 

 and a man needs his best horse, and his heart in 

 the right place too, if he wishes to live with them 

 across their low country. 



Unfortunately no lists of the earlier masters 

 or records of the sport they showed have been 

 preserved, or if they have they appear to be 

 irretrievably lost. But the fact is indisputable 

 that the hounds have been kept up without a 

 break since the death of the Duke of Buckingham, 

 although we come across the name of no master 

 after the Duncombes gave up the reins of office, 

 until about the middle of last century, when the 

 horn was carried by Mr. John Kendall, of 

 Pickering, a man who lives in the memory of the 

 Sinnington foxhunter as a hearty good fellow and 

 capital sportsman, a character which has been 

 well kept up by his descendants and their kins- 

 men, two of whom have been masters of the 

 hounds, and added to the reputation of the 

 country for sport. 



