Zbc jfatbers of 3foi*:-bunt(nG s 



In the first quarter of the eighteenth centurj' there was 

 a Mr Thomas Boothb}', who had, as early as 1697, hunted 

 what is now the Quorn country, and who is generally held 

 to be the Father of Fox-hunting, as we know it. His claim 

 to this title is founded upon the following inscription 

 engraven on a horn, which is, I believe, still in 

 existence : ' Thomas Boothby, Esquire, Tooley Park, 

 Leicester. With this horn he hunted the first pack 

 of foxhounds then in England fifty-five years ; born 

 1677, died 1752.' 



But there is another and an earlier claimant to the 

 honour of establishing the first regular pack of fox- 

 hounds, and that is Lord Arundel, whose descendant 

 makes good his ancestor's claim in a letter addressed 

 to ' Nimrod ' (C. J. Apperley), and published by him 

 as a note in the reprint of his famous Qimrter/j' 

 Review essay on ' The Chase.' ' A pack of foxhounds,' 

 writes Lord Arundel, ' were kept by my ancestor. Lord 

 Arundel, between the years 1690 and 1700, as I have 

 memoranda to prove ; ' but Lord Arundel does not 

 make it clear after all whether the original pack on/y 

 hunted fox, and the question is still debatable. 



One of the earliest Masters of Foxhounds, of whom 

 any detailed account is preserved, was Squire Draper, 

 of whom the following particulars are given in the old 

 Sporting Register. 



' In the old but now ruinous mansion of Berwick Hall, 

 in the East Riding of Yorkshire, once lived the well- 

 known William Draper, Esquire, who bred, fed, and 

 hunted the staunchest pack of foxhounds in Europe. 

 Upon an income of only ^^700, he brought up creditably 

 eleven sons and daughters, kept a stable of excellent 

 hunters, besides a carriage with horses suitable for 



