ROYAL. ROCK BEAGLE HUNT. 



CHAPTER IL 



THE FORMATION OF THE PACK. 



" My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 

 So flew'd, so sanded ; and their heads are hung 

 With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 

 Crook-kneed, and dew-lapp'd like 'l'he>;salian bulls ; 

 Slow in pursuit, but inatch'd iu mouth like bells, 

 ICach under each. A cry more tunable 

 Was never halioo'd to, nor cheered with horn, 

 In Crete, in Sparta, nor iu Thessaly. 

 Judge when you hear." 



JMidsHiiuiier Xig^Ju's Dream, act iv, scene i. 



The same evening (5th April, 1S45) on which the rules were framed, 

 the Committee held tlieir fir.st nieeting, and appointed Tinley Barton to be 

 the first Master of the Hounds. 



At this time the hounds in the possession of the club must have been 

 the three cou[)le previously alluded to as having been presented to T. Barton 

 by Mr. Atlierton, and there can be no doubt that some of the members liad 

 been amusing themselves by hunting so late in the season as April, and 

 getting into trouble with Mr. Ralph Brocklebank by trespassing in Prenton 

 Wood, 



EXTR.VCT FROM THE MiXUTE BoOK. 



It having been intimated to the Committee that Mr. Ralph Brocklebank 

 was much annoyed at the dogs having entered Prenton Mount Wood, C. Rawson 

 and J. T. Raynes waited upon him at his office in Liverpool on the morning of 

 the 7th April, 1845, in order to make an apology and also to solicit for permission 

 to hunt over his manors. Mr. Brocklebank was in Cheltenham, but Mr. Fisher 

 was seen, who is joint tenant with Mr. Brocklebank for the manors of Tranmere 

 and Prenton ; he accepted the apology, and would consult Mr. Brocklebank 

 relative to granting permission for the Royal Rock Beagle Hunt to sport over 

 Tranmere. 



These itw hounds were found too small to make their way easily 

 through or over the strong and close fences of Wirral, so Messrs. Rawson 

 and Barton cast about to find a pack of hounds which they could purchase 

 for the club. As good luck would have it, Captain J. Anstruther Thomson, 

 of Exeter, was disposing of his beagles, which mainly consisted of a lot he 



