trbe jFit3wilUams 269 



When Lord Fitzwilliam bought the hounds from Mr 

 Foley and Mr Crewe, he took them away from Oxford- 

 shire to Milton, and Will Deane, who had been first whip, 

 accompanied them as huntsman. Deane was one of the 

 first great huntsmen whose names are enrolled on the 

 scroll of fame. He had been brought up under the 

 famous Will Crane, who is, I think, absolutely the first 

 huntsman of note of whom there is any record, and who 

 used to say in his later days, ' I won't boast of my own 

 qualifications, but this I can say, that I've formed the 

 best huntsman in England — that's Will Deane.' Deane 

 appears to have thoroughly deserved this encomium. He 

 was as civil as he was sensible, and though he very 

 seldom resorted to other kennels for fresh blood, always 

 excepting Mr Foljambe's, yet his judgment in the 

 breeding of hounds was generally admitted to be sound. 



' The Druid,' however, has a very different story to tell. 

 He says that the hounds under Deane were so wild that 

 they were never known to hold a scent for half a mile, 

 and so fat that they couldn't kill a fox when they found 

 one. The establishment was splendid, the stud magnifi- 

 cent, being chiefly drafted from the racing stables. There 

 was everything that money could provide except sporty 

 and that was wanting, solely through Deane's utter 

 ignorance of his business. What authority ' The Druid ' 

 had for this sweeping statement he does not say. But 

 one can hardly accept it as correct in face of the fact 

 that the memorable match between Earl Fitzwilliam's 

 and Mr Meynell's hounds took place in Will Deane's 

 time. The great Leicestershire magnate brought ten 

 picked couples, the flower of his kennel, from Kimbolton 

 Castle to the tryst at Hunts Closes, and at the end of a 

 fast forty minutes, when the hounds were stopped, the 



