104 THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Mr. R. J. Barnard— THE building of the Kineton 

 kennels — some sport and sportsmen — sir 

 William Don and his ride to London. 



Mr. R. J. Barnard To take up once more the thread of my narrative in 

 the order of masterships — an order which my readers 

 must have begun to think I had wandered from for 

 good —I have to deal with one of the most honoured 

 of Warwickshire sportsmen, Mr. R. J. Barnard, of 

 Wellesbourne, afterwards Lord Willoughby de 

 Broke. He had always been a staunch supporter 

 of the hounds, and when in 1839 he took up 

 the reins of ofi&ce laid down by Mr. Granville, it 

 was as no stranger either to the country or to the hunt 

 that he assumed the command of the field. In his 

 management he found great assistance in Mr. Hugh 

 Williams and Mr. Townsend. 



The Kineton ken- One event must always be remembered as marking 

 the first year of his reign, and that is the building of 

 the kennels at Kineton. This took place in 1839, and 

 as a token of hearty goodwill on the part of the farm- 

 ers and residents in the country must never be lost sight 

 of in the history of *' the Warwickshire." I have re- 

 ferred to the support the hunt received from the agricul- 

 turalists in its very early days, and that this had by no 

 means seriously diminished the following description 

 will prove. By the hearty co-operation of all who 

 could assist in any branch of the under- 

 taking the kennels were put up at as little a cost 



nel8. 



