A SPORTING EVENT. I2g 



Douglass for "Horse and Hound," after his death in 

 March 1909, which details the history of this match, and 

 which I think merits recording in the " Annals." 



Mr. James Heger Douglass. 



We greatly regret to have to record the somewhat sudden 

 death on the 13th inst. of Mr. James Heger Douglass, of Market 

 Harborough, and our regret will be shared especially by the 

 older division of hunting men who pursued the fox in the 

 palmy days of Mr. Tailby's Mastership. Though riding over 

 seventeen stone, he was always at the top of the hunt, being 

 an accomplished and fearless horseman in his day. Enjoying 

 a large practice as a solicitor at Harborough, he occupied 

 the position of Clerk to the Magistrates there for over forty 

 years. His handsome and accomplished wife, who predeceased 

 him several years ago, was a sister of Captain George Warwick 

 Hunt, of Balaclava fame. iVlrs. Douglass was endowed with 

 all the courage and hard riding attributes of her intrepid 

 brother " Jonas," who died in 1906, and few names appeared 

 more frequently in the records of good runs in the Harborough 

 neighbourhood than those of Mr. Douglass and his wife. He 

 was also at one time Secretary to the familiarly called 

 " Billesdon Hunt," which, to his great regret, his sense of self- 

 respect compelled him to resign. Those who are familiar with 

 the circumstances which brought about his withdrawal from 

 an office he had honourably filled for many years thought the 

 majority of the Hunt Committee treated him in anythmg but 

 a handsome fashion, so much so that the Chairman, the late 

 Colonel James Baillie, and Mr. Mills both resigned in conse- 

 quence. 



The writer of these notes recalls a very sporting event at 

 which he had himself the good fortune to be present, on March 

 15th, 1869, some particulars of which can hardly fail to be of 

 special interest to our readers just now. In those days there 

 resided at Clipstone, in Northamptonshire, a highly-respected 

 and ponderous yeoman, by name Matthew Oldacre, a 

 prominent member of the Pytchley Hunt. The late Mr. 

 Nethercote, in his history of that Hunt, thus alluded to that 

 worthy:— 'In the noble army of Northamptonshire yeomen 

 who go well with hounds, the foremost place may fairly be 

 assigned to a heavy-weight, who has no superior across a 

 country. In Matthew Oldacre, of Clipstone, we have one of 



