256 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



at tlie time Master. The following account of liim appeared 

 in the County Gentleman on June 29th, 1889 : — 



Mr. Alfred Charles Duncombe is the eldest son of the late Hon. and Yevy 

 Reverend Augustus Duncombe, D.D., Dean of York, and grandson of the first 

 Baron Feversham, his mother being Lady Harriet, daughter of the fifth Marquis 

 of Queensberry. He was educated at Eton, and in 1862 joined the First Life 

 Guards, which he left in 1870 with the rank of captain. He is now hon. major 

 in the Staffordshire Yeomanry. In 1876 Mr. Duncombe — who, by the way, is 

 in the Commission of the Peace for the counties of Stafford and Derby, and was 

 High Sheriff for Staffordshire in 1883 — married Lady Florence Montagu, sister 

 to the present Earl of Sandwich. 



Mr. Duncombe is very fond of hunting and shooting. His seat, Calwich 

 Abbey, Ashbourne, which is on the banks of the Dove, Izaak Walton's favourite 

 river, is situated outside the boundaries of the Meynell and North Staffordshire 

 countries, but still within easy reach of both. He takes a great interest in agri- 

 cultural matters, more especially in the breeding of shire horses. At the present 

 moment he is owner of about a dozen grand stallions, including Premier, Harold, 

 Chancellor, True Briton, and Don Carlos. Harold, it may be remembered, won 

 the Elsenham Plate (the championship) at the Islington Shire Horse Show in 

 1887, and was a good second for the Queen's Gold Medal at Windsor this week 

 in the Shire division — in fact, not a few fancied he might have been placed first 

 without any injustice being done. He was one of the original promoters of the 

 Ashbourne Shire Horse Society, which has developed into a great success, and 

 has proved of immense benefit to the tenant farmers of the district. 



Calwich, as will be readily guessed from its title of 

 " Abbey," was originally Church property, but was granted 

 by Henry VIII. to the Fleetwoods, from them it passed 

 to the Granvilles, from them by marriage to the Dewes, 

 who took the name of Granville. Mr. Duncombe's father 

 bought it and built the modern house, to which the present 

 owner has made additions, in 1847. The gardens occupy 

 the site of the old house, which stood down by the water. 

 Nothing remains of the old Abbey but traces of the bowl- 

 ing green. 



Possibly, however, it is as the home and last resting- 

 place of the famous Harold, the king of shire horses, that 

 Calwich is especially interesting at present, for the noble 

 old horse is to " shires " what Eclipse is to thoroughbreds. 

 It may not be known to every one how near England 

 was to losing him. He was bred by Mr. Potter, of 

 Spondon, near Derby, who sold him to the Earl of 

 Harrington. He sold him to Mr. Douglas for exportation 

 to America. Luckily he was too late to go on the boat, 



