THE LAXDLORDS. 139 



applying for permission to hunt over Sir William's land, is given in a previous 

 chapter. He readily accorded permission, but stipulated that the hounds 

 should always be stopped from going into fox covers. There is no record of 

 any trouble in this respect during the few following years in which the fox- 

 hounds were maintained ; but in the Sport Books are many instances of runs 

 stopped on account of the hare taking to cover. 



Sir William gave up the pack of foxhounds in [848, and some time 

 afterwards left Hooton Hall, which was purchased by Mr. Naylor, the present 

 non-resident owner. 



Mr. John Massey Stanley (the brother to Sir William mentioned in the 

 above report of the dinner), in later years, acquired the title of Sir John 

 Errington, and in 1893 died at Cannes, the last of his line, aged 82 years. 

 He was an intimate friend of Napoleon HI, who, on one of his visits to 

 England, stayed for a time at Hooton Hall. Mr. G. K. Taunton, of the 

 ]\Iarfords, Bromborough, an old member of the R. R.B., used to point out a 

 wide and ditihcult place in the Dibbinsdale brook, below the Marfords, over 

 which the Emperor leaped his horse, to the admiration of all beholders. 



'• Let us every one go home, 

 And laush this sport o'er by a country fire ; 

 Sir John and all."' 



J\ Ferry U'ivcs of Windsor, net v, scene 5. 



This is a very ancient family in Cheshire. At one time its represen- 

 tatives owned and resided in a great many of the halls and mansions of 

 ^\'irral, including Mollington, Backford, Gayton, Irby, Thurstaston, Grange, 

 and Caldy. It was an ancestor of the Gleggs who resided in Gayton Hall 

 when King William HI, on his way to Ireland in 1689, slept at the Hall. 

 The bed and bedroom occupied by him are shown to visitors to this day. 



At tiie time of the inauguration of the Ro3al Rock Beagles, the chief 

 landowners of the Gleggs in Wirral were Colonel John Baskerville Cdegg, of 

 Thurstaston Hall, and Captain E. H. Glegg, of Backford Hall. The latter 

 had not much to do with the R.R.B., as their country then hardly extended 

 to his property, though they sometimes ran on to it from Sutton. The 

 present re[)resenlative of the family in ^\'irral, Mr. Birkenhead Glegg, of 

 Backford Hall, is a good friend to beagles, being a member of the Cheshire 

 Beagles, which hunt his country, and treating them most hospitably when 

 they come there. He is equally well disposed to the R.R.B., and has invited 

 them to meet at Backford Hall. 



1 2 



