AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 5 



iact remains that in every case there is no conclusive 

 evidence as to the quarry which was at first pursued. 

 About the antiquity of several packs there is, however, 

 no dispute, and perhaps the oldest of all are the lately 

 defunct Goodwood (formerly the Charlton), the Quorn, 

 the Sinnington, the Bilsdale, and the predecessors of 

 the South Dorset, Lord Portman's, Blackmore Vale and 

 Cattistock, originally known as the Cranborne Chase 

 Hunt. In the matter of continuity perhaps no very 

 direct line has been handed down, and it is quite certain 

 that in every case the limits of the original country have 

 been greatly curtailed, but the evidence, such as it is, 

 may be given, and dealing with the Charlton Hunt first, 

 it may be gathered from the fifteenth volume of the 

 Sussex Archceological Collections that a Kentish gentle- 

 man, named Roper, managed a pack of hounds for the 

 Duke of Monmouth and Earl Grey in 1689, the year in 

 which William III ascended the throne. This Charlton 

 pack, it has always been understood, was kept to hunt 

 fox alone, but records as to its earliest hunting are 

 vague as to details, and the evidence seems to be more 

 traditional than anything else. In Vyner's Notitia 

 Venatica it is broadly stated that foxhunting first 

 became an amusement in England at the end of the 

 seventeenth century. As the earlier writers on hunting 

 were apparently unable to solve the questions of dates 

 and priority, it is hardly likely that such matters will 

 ever be decided. The Charlton was, however, a pros- 

 perous hunt during the eighteenth century, and its legi- 

 timate successor was the Goodwood Hunt which came 

 to an end about a dozen years ago. The present Duke 

 of Richmond, then Lord March, was the last master of 

 the Goodwood, and he gave up owing to want of 

 support in the field. He had, as a matter of fact, main- 



