ifrebericft |p»eter 5)elme*1Ra&cllffe 257 



the Chase than he. His apprenticeship was served with 

 the Oakle>' in the palmy days of Lord Tavistock. 



As a Master, his first venture was with a pack of 

 dwarf foxhounds, which he entered to hare-hunting on 

 his large estates at Hitchin. For three seasons he kept 

 up what fox-hunters contemptuously call ' the currant 

 jelly game,' then sold his harriers to Sir James Flower, 

 took over Mr Thomas Sebright's foxhounds, and for 

 five seasons hunted the Hertfordshire country, which 

 embraced a portion of Bedfordshire. 



The history of the Hertfordshire Hunt is a somewhat 

 remarkable one. It was founded by the Marchioness 

 of Salisbury, grandmother of the present Premier, who 

 kept her hounds at Hatfield. Her ladyship was a 

 veritable Amazon of the Chase. She turned out to hunt 

 her own hounds " clad in bright blue habit with black 

 collar and cuffs, and a hunting cap on her head." She 

 was the hardest rider in the Hunt, and was frequently 

 known, in the course of a good run, to distance the whole 

 field, whilst her panting whippers-in toiled after her in 

 vain. The Marchioness was fond of matching her 

 hounds against those of rival Hunts, notably Mr Charles 

 Calvert's, afterwards the Puckeridge. In 1828, finding 

 that increasing years incapacitated her from active 

 service in the saddle, she resigned the horn to Mr 

 Thomas Sebright, at the same time making a present 

 of her hounds to the county. Seven years later, in 

 November 1835, this fine old lady-huntsman met with 

 a tragic fate. She was burned to death at Hatfield, 

 in a fire which entirely consumed one wing of that 

 historic house, among the ruins of which her charred 

 remains were found. 



Mr Thomas Sebright hunted the Hertfordshire country 



R 



