AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 7 



Charlton Hunt dates from before the accession of 

 William III, that its operations were carried on in 

 West Sussex, and probably in parts of Hants, and that 

 after its collapse there were hounds at Goodwood and 

 at Petworth — very often at both places — and that the 

 Goodwood Hunt having come to an end, Lord Lecon- 

 field's hunt is the natural successor to that part of the 

 country which must have been the centre of the hunt in 

 its earliest days. Charlton, it may be stated, is a little 

 village, lying in a hollow of the hills, not two miles 

 from Goodwood racecourse, and close to the road which 

 leads from Midhurst to Chichester. 



The claims of the Quorn Hunt to be the oldest fox- 

 hound pack in the kingdom rest on the evidence of the 

 famous Mr. Boothby's hunting-horn, of which an 

 engraving was published in the Field some five-and- 

 twenty years ago. This horn bears the following 

 inscription : — 



** Thos. Boothby, Esq., Tooley Park, Leicester. With 

 this horn he hunted the first pack of foxhounds then in 

 England 55 years. Born 1677, died 1752." 



The year 1698 is given by some authorities as the 

 commencement of Mr. Boothby's mastership, so that 

 as far as the actual date is concerned the Charlton, 

 which as we have shown existed [in 1689 and probably 

 before that date, takes precedence, but whereas no 

 reliable evidence is forthcoming that the Charlton 

 hunted fox and fox alone before the close of the seven- 

 teenth century, the evidence of the horn strongly favours 

 the supposition that Mr. Boothby's hounds were always 

 a foxhound pack. This Mr. Boothby hunted a large 

 portion of Leicestershire, and was, in fact, the first 

 squire who is known to have hunted regularly in that 

 locality, but the Quorn Hunt does not exactly claim him 



