FREDERICK P. DELME- 

 RADCLIFFE 



You can count almost on the fingers of one hand the 

 Masters of Hounds who have ventured into the paths of 

 authorship ; and of these only three can be said to 

 have established themselves as classics in the literature 

 of sport : Peter Beckford, with whom I have already 

 dealt, R. T. Vyner, author of ' Notitia Venatica,' and 

 the subject of my present sketch, whose admirable 

 treatise on ' The Noble Science ' will always command 

 readers, if only for its entertaining style. Indeed, Mr 

 Delm6-Radcliffe might well stand for the representative 

 type of ' The Sportsman as Man of Letters.' 



Frederick Peter Delme-Radcliffe, born in 1804, came 

 of an ancient family claiming descent from Richard 

 Radcliffe, of the Tower, near Bury, in Lancashire, who 

 was a person of note in the time of Edward the First, 

 and distinguished himself at the battle of Crecy. The 

 present family seat, Hitchin Priory, was granted by 

 Henry the Eighth to Sir Ralph Radcliffe, on the ex- 

 pulsion of the White Carmelites, what time 



Bluff Harry broke into the spence 

 And turned the cowls adrift. 



The Delmds became united with the Radcliffes, and 

 the two names were conjoined, in the last century, when 



