Fox-hunting in the Twentieth Century 



doyen of masters in his day, I need hardly say 

 they have been equalled but by few, surpassed 

 by none. However, I pass on to others forthwith. 

 This season Mr. Knott attended his seventy-fourth 

 opening meet of the Bicester pack at Fenny 

 Compton Wharf ; his memory must therefore go 

 back to the day when the first Mr. Tyrwhitt 

 Drake hunted this pack. Here is another in- 

 stance : Mr. J. T. Powell attended the sixty- 

 second opening meet of the Tedworth, so he can 

 recall the famous ^'Assheton Smith" as M.F.H. 

 in this county. Every country has its ^* Father 

 of the Hunt," though he may be consigned to 

 seeing the ''best of the fun" on wheels. I well 

 remember the late Mr. George Lane-Fox riding 

 to his Bramham Moor hounds in the late eighties. 

 He must have been then nearly seventy. The 

 Vale of Lime Hunt has a follower, Mr. R. Gillow, 

 aged ninety-eight ; and Mr. R. Abbot of the 

 Bilsdales is ninety-three or ninety-four. So there 

 is abundant proof that, barring accident, hunting 

 is conducive to long life, health, and happiness. 



I remember the late Mr. John Lawrence, formerly 

 M.F.H. of the Llangibby, lived to ninety-four, 

 though unable to ride to hounds during the last 

 six or seven years of his life. This is the next 

 country to the Monmouthshire. Mr. W. E. 

 Curre being now master, his brother, Mr. J. Curre, 

 is huntsman. Mr. Lawrence's hunting career, it 



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