SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



visited, eventually became the only country 

 hunted by them. 18 



In addition to the Lord Mayor's hounds, 

 Middlesex has at different dates possessed two 

 other packs of staghounds, both of which 

 were formed by the enterprise of well-known 

 sportsmen. One of these, the kennels of 

 which were at Cranford, was formed in 1824 

 by the Hon. George Grantley Berkeley, who 

 was for a time assisted by Mr. Wombwell. 

 The hounds consisted of thirty couple, almost 

 all bred at Berkeley Castle, and among them 

 were two given to Mr. Grantley Berkeley by 

 Mr. Villebois Batchelor and Blunder the 

 portrait ,of the latter of which by Cooper 

 appeared in the New Sporting Magazine. 1 *" The 

 deer were sent from Berkeley Castle and from 

 Hampstead Lodge by Lord Craven, and at the 

 close of the hunting season all that survived 

 were sent back again to Berkeley Castle, 

 where five months amongst their fellows 

 undid the effects of artificial maintenance and 

 restored their running. They were thus, in 

 Mr. Grantley Berkeley's opinion, superior to 

 the generality of those from the Royal kennels, 

 which were from season to season kept in a 

 paddock. 18 " 



Mr. Berkeley's hounds hunted twice a 

 week, 18c the central portion of the country 

 hunted being the Harrow Weald, and 

 amongst those who regularly attended the 

 meets were Lord Cardigan, Col. Thomas 

 Wood and Col. Standen, both of the Guards, 

 Mr. Smith of Hanwell, Mr. Peyton, Mr. 

 Charles Tollemache, Col. Parker of the Life 

 Guards, and Lord Alvanley. 19 



Owing to the proximity of London the 

 runs were sometimes attended with amusing 

 incidents, such as one in which the stag 

 eventually headed for Hounslow, Isleworth, 

 Twickenham, and Brentford. Of this run 

 Lord Alvanley is said to have given the 

 following description : 



Devilish good run ; but the asparagus beds went 

 awfully heavy and the grass all through was up to 

 one's hocks ; the only thing wanted was a landing 

 net, for the deer got into the Thames and Berkeley 

 had not the means to get him ashore.* 



" The Queen's Houndt, 29. An account of a 

 run with the Lord Mayor's hounds is given in 

 The Sporting Magazine for 1795. The hunt was 

 ridiculed by Tom D'Urfey in his Pills to purge 

 Melancholy ; but as late as 1822 we find the editor 

 of BelTs Life writing that ' the cockney hunts are 

 not to be laughed at or despised by clod-hopping 

 squires who each thinks that he knows more about 

 the thing than anyone else.' 21 April, 1822. 



ls " Reminiscences of a Huntsman, 26, 27, 30. 



18b Ibid. 30, 48. "* Ibid. 29. 



" Ibid. 27, 28, 30, 44, 45. w Ibid. 45, 46. 



On another occasion the stag was run to bay 

 in Lady Mary Hussey's drawing-room at 

 Hillingdon ; and on a third it entered the 

 kitchen of a house, the wrathful owner of 

 which said in reply to Grantley Berkeley's 



apologies : 



** 



Your stag, sir, not content with walking through 

 every office has been here, sir, here in my drawing 

 room, sir, whence he proceeded upstairs to the 

 nursery, and damn me, sir, he's now in Mrs. 

 's boudoir." 



One of the oddest scenes, however, caused by 

 the vagaries of the stag, occurred when, after 

 entering London by Regent's Park, a fine one 

 covered with foam and stained with blood, and 

 followed by two couple of hounds, one morning 

 ran up the steps of No. i Montague Street, Rus- 

 sell Square. The efforts of Grantley Berkeley 

 to persuade two young ladies who were looking 

 out of the window to allow the stag to enter 

 the hall in order to ensure his capture were 

 rudely interrupted by their father, who, to the 

 amusement of the other members of the hunt 

 and the large crowd that had assembled, told 

 him that if he did not instantly take ' his 

 animal away ' he would ' send for the beadle.' 

 The stag was eventually captured by the aid 

 of some friendly butcher boys. 22 



Mr. Grantley Berkeley maintained the 

 sport for twelve years, but the difficulty of 

 doing so was materially increased towards the 

 close of this period by the number of men 

 that hunted with him, the populous character 

 of the country, and the opposition of the 

 farmers, whose principal crop, hay, suffered 

 considerably from the damage done by the 

 hunt. 23 



Inclosure after inclosure went on, heath and 

 common vanished, villas sprang up where gravel 

 pits used to be ... and babies cries were heard 

 on sites that in my remembrance were only waked 

 by the prettier whistle of the plover." 



The farmers refused to be pacified by 



a dinner suggested by Messrs. Norton of Uxbridge, 

 coursing to all who kept or could borrow grey- 

 hounds, and shooting, with presents of game and 

 occasionally venison. 



An action brought against him by a farmer 

 named Barker, who was represented by 

 Scarlett as counsel, ended, in spite of his 

 defence by Brougham, in a verdict for the 

 plaintiff for 100 damages ; and this, coupled 

 with an offer at this time of the mastership of 

 the Oakley Hunt, determined Mr. Grantley 

 Berkeley to give up his pack in 1836. 



" Ibid. 57. 

 "Ibid. 49, 50, 51. 



" Ibid. 46, 47. 

 " Ibid. 53. 



261 



