The Bedale Hounds, 1832-1908 15 



The 6th Duke of Leeds kept a pack of 

 fox-hounds at Hornby Castle, with Kit Scaife 

 as huntsman and Will Danby as whipper-in, 

 hunting the country west of the Castle, 

 beyond Askrigg and Hawes. The "Druid" 

 in Silk and Scarlet thus describes it. ' ' A 

 singularly wild and beautiful one, all dells 

 and ling. Hounds constantly ran into West- 

 moreland, and they used to return by ones 

 and twos to kennels, at all hours of the night. 

 Once — no one being with them, they ran 

 a fox to ground in Masham Moor Heads, 

 thirty miles from kennels.'** 



In 1816, owing to some disagreement 

 with Lord Darlington, the Duke decided to 

 give up his hounds, and they were sold. 



A few couples were bought by Mr. Tom 

 Hodgson, then Master oi the Badsworth ; 

 and eighteen couples by the Committee of 

 the York and Ainsty — a body which had 

 just been constituted to manage the affairs 

 of this pack of hounds. 



On the break up of the Duke's hunting 

 establishment, Skaife became head of his 

 racing one, having as his head lad, John 

 Osborne (father of Mr. John Osborne, of 

 Brecongill), and Sim Templeman as the 

 stable jockey. 



Will Danby deserves more than a cursory 

 remark, as he was a Bedale bred man — 



The Duke must have kept a fairly large number of hounds, as 

 in the year 1809, I find that the Duke of Rutland bought 

 15^ couples from him. At this particular date they did not 

 breed the number of hounds at Belvoir that they did a few 

 years later, and of course do now. 



