iv Will Lockey. 



was not entirely unknown in its Northern parts. He had, 

 it is true, earned no great name as a huntsman in the 

 "Worcestershire country, but as an excellent servant, a 

 first-rate horseman, devoted to his hounds, he had few 

 superiors. In this, his first season, I do not hesitate to 

 say he has been a great success. Whatever his short- 

 comings as a huntsman may have been in the land of 

 fruit and hops, here he has won the hearty approval of 

 a most critical field, in the most decided way. Quiet 

 and yet quick, determined and yet discretionary, he 

 has, in a new country, with everything about it to 

 learn, shown better sport than Sir Watkin's hunt has 

 enjoyed for many a season. Lockey has the fortune, 

 too, to be backed up by one of the keenest Masters, 

 and to be whipped-in by one of the best first whips in 

 the country, in Eli Skinner. With such aids it only 

 needs a pick of hounds improved by careful breeding, 

 drafting, and kennel management, to bring the Wynnstay 

 establishment to a state bordering on perfection. It 

 is worth while to dwell shortly on the past history of 

 Sir Watkin's hunt, to see how the pack has been 

 fostered in the family, and what a grand country it 

 hunts over. The great-great-grandfather of the present 

 Baronet was a noted sportsman in his day, and history 

 tells us how in 1745 he had to quit his native country 

 of Wales for being too closely allied with the Jacobites, 

 and seek shelter with his friend, the then Duke of 

 Beaufort, in Gloucestershire. His second wife was one 

 of the Shakerleys, a good old Cheshire stock, and he 

 died from the effects of a fall, returning from hunting 

 in Sir Eobert Cunliffe's park. Curiously enough, this 

 happened according to a presentiment of liis wife's. 



