Mr. Parrington and Hound Shows. 115 



stouter half a century ago but also the topographical conditions 

 were far more productive of sport. It is interesting to note that 

 it was Mr. Parrington who founded hound shows and introduced 

 jumping at agricultural shows. The season following the first 

 leaping competitions Mr. " Billy " Williamson met him and 

 asked " What are you going to invent next for shows Parring- 

 ton ? " and the reply was " classes for foxhounds." Mr. 

 Williamson replied " What Masters of hounds will send entries 

 to a dog show ? " and Mr. Parrington retorted "It wont be a 

 dog show it will be a hound show. Mr. Mark Milbank has 

 promised to be one of the judges and I want you to be the 

 other. Will you agree ? " Mr. Williamson promised, though 

 he had little faith in the innovation, and on the very morning 

 of the show said with surprise " Well, I declare ! if old Tom 

 Sebright hasn't brought a couple of hounds." Mr. Parrington's 

 residence at Kirbymoorside is the rendezvous of Sinnington 

 sportsmen, whose M.F.H. Mr. Parrington was for some seasons, 

 and not an evening passes without the toast " Fox-hunting — 

 long may it flourish ! " being heartily drunk by the veteran 

 sportsman and such of his friends who have foregathered 

 round his hospitable board. In an article by Mr. A. W. 

 Coaten, appearing some years ago in Badminton, the following 

 quotation from a letter from Mr. Parrington was given : 



" As a foxhunter I may certainly claim the title of ' veteran,' as I 

 was blooded in 1825, and have been following hounds in one way or 

 another up to the present time — for the last twenty years on wheels, I 

 regret to say, owing to sciatica. I have, of course, seen many remarkable 

 runs with hounds, having hunted with all the Yorkshire packs, and many 

 of the neighbouring packs in Durham and Lincolnshire. To detail them 

 all would fill a volume. I am often asked which was the best run I ever 

 saw, and I always reply, it was on January 21, 1859, when with the South 

 Durham Hounds, with a fox that jumped out of a hedgerow in view of the 

 pack, ran over a fine country at a tip-top pace for one hour and eleven 

 minutes without the slightest check, and a brilliant kill in the open. This 



