36 ROYAL KOCK BEAGLE HUNT. 



Beagles, and he is to this day one of the keenest supporters and advisers of 

 tlie Hunt, keeping the beaglers well amused with stories of his early sporting 

 reminiscences. 



]\Ir. Barton was appointed Master of the Hounds by the Committee of 

 the R.R.B. on the 5th April, 1845, ^'^'^ ^^^^ ^''St season found him strictly 

 attentive to his duties. He hunted the hounds on horseback, for the reason 

 that Sir William Stanley, in giving his assent to the beagles hunting the 

 country, had stipulated that the hounds should be at once stopped on 

 approaching any fox cover. At the close of this first season T. Barton 

 wished to resign his position as Master of the Hounds, but the committee 

 were able to prevail upon him to remain Master for a year or two longer. 

 The reason why he was so seldom at the meets, was probably because he 

 preferred riding with the foxhounds. Whenever the beagle meets were fixed 

 at Barnston, T. Barton hospitably entertained the beaglers at lunch, and 

 found them a hare on his farm. On one of these occasions the Sport Book 

 records : — 



We were greatly grieved during this run, at the conduct of one of our 

 members, and record the circumstance as a warning to him and to others. Just 

 as we viewed the hare for the last time, completely done, we were electrified by 

 hearing this excited member shout to the Master, who was close to the hare, 

 " Kill her, Tinley ; d — n her, kill her ! " Comment is needless. Surely, surely 

 such a scene will never again occur with the Royal Rock Beagles. 



Mr. Barton still remembers this incident, but has forgotten the name of 

 the culprit, and it is quite as well that it should rest in oblivion. Though 

 the originator of the club, Tinley Barton was only enrolled as the sixty-third 

 member. 



Mr. Barton was recently asked for an explanation of the inference, 

 which may be drawn from the records of the sport from 1S45 to 1847, that 

 the majority of the beaglers of that period were fine-weather sportsmen. 

 There are numerous entries to this effect : — " Heavy rain ; no one at the 

 " meet " — " Heavy rain ; only three members present." And this sometimes 

 after a long stop by frost, when beaglers might be expected to be keen to go 

 out to make up for lost time. His answer to this question was, " That 

 " many of the members did not care to pay for driving to the meet on a wet 

 " day, unless there was a prospect of a lunch afterwards." In the early days 

 of the R.R.B. a good lunch was a frequent institution, which must have 

 been detrimental to sport. 



Mr. Barton is one of the few original members of the R.R.B. now living, 

 and still takes great interest in all that concerns his old pack. As beaglers, 

 let us one and all wish health and long life to this good old friend to sport. 



