The Revs. Hart Dyke and W. Gooch. 67 



foxes, whose early death was deeply lamented. I must not 

 overlook Squire Allan, of Grange, ' who got there by knowing 

 the country and riding the lanes,' and George Maughan, of 

 Worsall, a sporting farmer, who died a few years ago, was a 

 real good man to hounds, and knew the run of a fox. There 

 were also some first-rate 'gentlemen in black' who were difficult 

 to beat, namely the Rev. Thomas Hart Dyke, who was related 

 to the Dykes of Lullingstone Castle, in Kent, a capital rider, 

 and a first-class man to hounds, of whom the song said : 

 ' If he leads unto Heaven as he rides in a run.' 



" The Rev. W. Gooch, Stainton, and his sons, Percy and 

 Cecil, both good boys with hounds." 



It will be interesting to add some little data to the fore- 

 going extract from the early writer we are quoting, with 

 reference to the late Rev. Wm. Gooch. He was Rector of 

 Benacre, Suffolk, Canon of York, Vicar of Stainton, Rural 

 Dean of Cleveland, and a J. P. for the North Riding. The 

 only son of Colonel William Gooch, 4th Dragoon Guards (who 

 fought in the Peninsula War and at Waterloo) ; the late Rev. 

 William Gooch was a man of great stature, fine physique, and 

 one of the old time handsome squarsons. There was no rectory 

 at Benacre, so from 1828 to 1866 the late Vicar of Stainton 

 lived in Cleveland. His sister, Matilda — one of the beauties of 

 her day — married William Vernon Harcourt, son of Archbishop 

 Harcourt, who gave Mr. Gooch the living of Stainton, and here 

 he kept an open house of call for all local sportsmen. He was 

 an exceedingly popular man and a very fine horseman, riding 

 the best of cattle and invariably taking a foremost place with 

 the Cleveland, South Durham, and Hurworth foxhounds, and 

 also Col. Hildyard's Stokesley Harriers. When pluralism 

 became unfashionable he resigned the living of Stainton and 



