126 The Cookson family. 



In the same journal for Dec, 1883, a biographical sketch 

 of the Hurworth M.F.H. appeared, which I give in extenso : 



" The Cooksons have been familiar names in the North of 

 England for some generations. Writing of a cadet of the 

 family, a few months ago, in this magazine, we spoke of them 

 as an old stock in the counties of Durham and Northumber- 

 land, who had fought for Church and King, and given and 

 received hard knocks in the days when 



They should take who have the power, 

 And they should keep who can, 



was the lawless creed. But they have always been sportsmen 

 since sport was a fashion in England ; and assuredly the 

 subject of our present sketch has not only trod in the steps of 

 his forefathers, but has diverged into other paths that they 

 knew not of. Mr. Sawrey-Cookson has been, and is, keen to 

 hounds, and good with the gun ; but he has done the State 

 Service, as well as followed the bent of his inclinations. He is 

 one of the comparatively few Englishmen who have made 

 breeding their study, and he has done much — no man, perhaps, 

 more so — to improve the breed of the English thoroughbred, 

 by bringing to bear upon the subject a practical knowledge 

 and judgment second to none. 



" It would be out of place, in the limits of a brief 

 biography, to enter into the full details of Mr. Cookson's large 

 breeding establishment from the day when he gave what he 

 himself calls ' the ridiculous price of three hundred guineas for 

 " Sweetmeat,'" at a Doncaster sale by auction, in 1848. This 

 will, we hope, be done at an early date in this magazine by a 

 pen more qualified than ours to treat of the subject. We may 

 mention, however, that, at that time, the nucleus of what was 

 to be the famous Neasham stud was one mare, though Mr. 

 Cookson very soon after became possessor of two, destined to 



