Xlbe jfatbers ot jfoi'^^buntino ^ 



from his old favourite pony, he expired. There was no 

 man, rich or poor, in his neighbourhood, but lamented 

 his death, and the foxes were the only things that had 

 occasion to be glad that Squire Draper was no more.' 



Now Squire Draper, I learn from other sources, was 

 goaded into fox-hunting by the wholesale destruction of 

 his lambs, and it was in the year 1726 that he first got 

 together a pack for hunting the marauders. He was 

 liberally assisted in his efforts by his neighbour, Sir Mark 

 Constable, and probably was the only M.F.H. who has 

 ever had a /ady as his whipper-in. Miss Diana Draper was 

 as keen a huntress as the goddess after whom she was 

 named, and was invaluable to her father in the hunting- 

 field. She had a rare voice, and cheered on the hounds 

 as lustily as any male whip, and no doubt far more 

 musically. But, like her namesake, she seems to have 

 been so icily chaste that no bachelor was bold enough 

 to woo her, or if any were, his suit was unsuccessful, for 

 she lived and died in single blessedness. Escaping all 

 the perils of the hunting field she reached a good old age 

 before death claimed her, and, to quote a contemporary 

 notice of her decease : ' What was more wonderful 

 among sportsmen who dared not follow her, she died 

 with whole bones in her bed.' Diana Draper lies buried 

 beside her father at Market Weighton. It is hard to 

 say which was the keener sportsman of the two. But 

 we may safely challenge the annals of fox-hunting to 

 produce another pair as unique as this Yorkshire Squire 

 and the daughter who whipped-in to him. 



But, on the whole, I think the claims of John Warde 

 to be the ' Father of Fox-hunting,' are superior to those 

 of any of his predecessors. He was at any rate the first 

 really great Master of Foxhounds of whom there is any 



