Annals of the Tarporley Club. 399 



"' Every member must have a blue frock, with plain yellow metal buttons, scarlet velvet cape, double-breasted 

 scarlet flannel waistcoat, the coat sleeve to be cut and turned up.' 



"The following year it was voted that ' the metal buttons be changed for basket mohair ones ; and that every 

 member provides himself with a scarlet saddle-cloth, bound with blue.' 



" In 1764 it was voted that 'if any member does not appear in the strict uniform of the Hunt (as before described), 

 he shall forfeit one guinea for every such offence.' Two years afterwards Mr. Crewe was fined for having his bridle 

 lapt with red and blue ; Mr. Barry for not taking the binding off the button-holes of his coat ; Mr. Whitworth for 

 having his saddle-cloth bound with purple ; Lord Grosvenor for riding to cover with a white saddle-cloth, and 

 likewise for having his bridle lapt with white ; also for having quitted the Hunt without leave on Tuesday, he was 

 lined five guineas. 



"In 1770, the club having then become a fox-hunting club, it was voted ' that the Hunt should change their 

 uniform to a red coat unbound, with a small frock sleeve, a grass-green velvet cape, and green waistcoat, and that the 

 sleeve has no buttons, the red saddle-cloth to be bound with green instead of blue, the points of bridles same as before.'* 



" Leather breeches were the universal wear in the morning, as well as when hunting, amongst coimtry gentlemen 

 of that day. By the i6th rule of the club, ' If any member of the Society should marry, he is to present each member 

 of the Hunt with a pair of buckskin breeches.' In 1 764 this was altered into one gumea for each member of the club, 

 to be paid into the hands of the Secretary, to be spent in leather breeches. Two years later it was voted that ' any 

 member of the Hunt that marries a second time shall give two pairs of leather breeches to each member of the Hunt.' " 



Drinking, in accordance with tiie spirit of the age, when all or nearly all our most eminent 

 statesmen drank hard,t was an important business at the Tarporley meetings, and is the 

 subject of a series of rules. It will be observed from the following extracts that, unlike the 

 Yorkshire and Devonshire squires, claret, not port, was the favourite liquor. 



"At the first meeting of the Tarporley Hunt, 7th November, 1762, it was ordered that Mr. Booth Grey (the 

 Secretary) procures for the use of this Society two collar glasses and two admittance glasses of a larger size. The 9th 

 rule being 'that three collar bumpers be drank after dinner, and the same after supper; after they are drank, every 

 member may do as he pleases in regard to drinking.' 



" In 1769 a change was made in the direction of temperance ; the club having been enlarged to twenty-five 

 members, ' never to exceed the same,' it was agreed that, ' instead of three collar glasses, only one shall be drunk after 

 dinner, except a fox is killed above ground,;!: and then, after the Lady Patroness, another collar glass shall be drunk to 

 Fox-hunting.' 



'• In 1772, ' Lord Kilmorie's mild and pleasant administration was approved,' not only by his second election, but 

 by his health being drunk in three goblets. The next year it was voted ' that every member introducing a stranger 

 pays for the second night of his staying one gallon of claret ; for the fourth night two gallons ; and if he stays three 

 hunting days, one dozen.' 



" In 1778 it was ordered that the part of the order containing these words, 'that the claret never be admitted into 

 the house bill,' be rescinded, and that the deficiency of the claret after what is paid for strangers be inserted in the 

 bill. Claret must have been cheap in those days, for the Secretary's accounts were settled and allowed, being ' on 

 claret account ^15 5s. 6d., and on house account ^2 2s.' Voted 'that each member of this Hunt deposit 29s. in the 

 Secretary's hands for a fund to purchase claret, and that Mr. Roger Wilbraham be requested to order it down.' 

 In 1779 it was 'agreed to allow the landlord fifteenpence a bottle and the bottles for drinking our own claret.'" 



In 1782 the superiority of fox-hunting was fully established, for 



"Offley Crewe and Sir Peter Warburton were found guilty of a most heinous offence, in having crossed a 

 hare's scut with a fox's brush, and fined one gallon of claret each : a very light fine for such an offence. 



" In 1806 it was unanimously agreed that the members should subscribe the sum 01 £,■}> }>=• ne^'t year fo"" 

 silver lorks." 



* The present uniform of the Cheshire, like the Surrey Hunt, is scarlet with a green collar. 



t In the memoir of Gilbert Elliot, first Earl of Minto, he writes that he lelt Fox and Grey (the proud, decorous Grey) at the 

 " Crown and Anchor," " very far gone." 



X As it was impossible to stop all tlie earths in a wild euiiUiy, this " killing above ground " was a rare event. 



