A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



In 1885 Col.Sir Alfred Plantagenet Frederick 

 Charles Somerset, K.C.B., on relinquishing 

 the mastership of the Hertford Foxhounds, 

 started a pack of staghounds at Enfield, the 

 kennels of which were at his seat of Enfield 

 Court. In commemoration of the fact that 

 the Enfield country had not been hunted 

 since the days of Queen Elizabeth they were 

 named the Enfield Chase Staghounds, and the 

 dress adopted was that of the Elizabethan era 

 namely, a red coat with blue lapels and 

 gold buttons, yellow vest and cap. 



Sir Alfred Somerset retained the mastership 

 till 1899, when he was obliged by ill-health 

 to relinquish it. The kennels were then re- 

 moved by his successor, Mr. Hartridge, to Bar- 

 net. On the retirement of Mr. Hartridge the 

 increase of building led to their transfer to 

 High Canons, near Shenley in Hertfordshire, 

 the residence of the next master, Mr. W. 

 Walker. In 1910 Mr. D. D. Bulger became 

 master ; and hounds were kennelled at Pursley 

 near Shenley. The hunt can therefore no 

 longer be regarded as being in Middlesex, though 

 a portion of the county round Potters Bar 

 and on to Enfield is occasionally hunted. 26 



There are 23 couples of hounds. The 

 hunting days are Tuesday and (usually) 

 Saturday, the most convenient places for 

 attending the meets being Hatfield, St. Albans, 

 and Barnet. The master is also secretary 

 of the hunt, the whipper-in of which is 

 C. Strickland. 



HARRIERS 



In the last quarter of the last century 

 Mr. Westbrooke of Cranford is stated by 



Mr. Grantley Berkeley to have kept by 

 subscription a pack of harriers. His elder 

 brother, the Hon. Moreton Berkeley, after- 

 wards sixth Earl of Berkeley, acted as whip- 

 per-in, and on Mr. Westbrooke's resignation, 

 the two brothers appear to have kept up this 

 pack for a time. The country hunted com- 

 prised Hownslow Heath, Harlington Com- 

 mon, Hampton Common, and occasionally 

 West End in the Harrow country. 27 



There is an allusion to a pack of harriers 

 in a History of Hampton by Ripley, published 

 in 1868, which had then ceased to exist, but 

 no details are given as to the date either of its 

 formation or dissolution. 



Middlesex was formerly frequently, and is 

 still occasionally, hunted by hunts belonging 

 to the adjacent counties, such as the 

 Hertfordshire, the Old Berkeley East, and the 

 Royal Buckhounds. 



Among the places indicated on a chart of 

 the meets of the last-named hunt, contained 

 in Lord Ribblesdale's The Gluten's Hounds, are 

 Uxbridge, Southall, Hayes, Cranford, and 

 Bedfont, and he quotes a graphic description of 

 a run given by Lord Colville in 1 868, in which 

 his late Majesty King Edward, then Prince 

 of Wales, took part. On this occasion the 

 stag ran from Denham Court, past Pinner, 

 and straight over Harrow Hill into what 

 are known as the Duck Paddle Fields, and 

 thence to Wormwood Scrubbs. It was 

 eventually taken at Paddington Goods Station 

 and the hunt accompanied the Prince of 

 Wales to Marlborough House, riding through 

 Hyde Park and Constitution Hill in hunting 

 dress. 28 



COURSING 



It has been mentioned that Henry VIII 

 when subdividing the Home Park and Bushey 

 Park at Hampton converted portions of them 

 into the course, 144 acres, and the hare warren, 

 380 acres in extent, and that he and several 

 other sovereigns, and notably William III, with 

 whom it was a favourite pastime, were greatly 

 addicted to coursing, then called hunting. 26 In 



15 The writer is indebted for these particulars to 

 the courtesy of Col. Sir A. P. Somerset, the founder, 

 and Mr. W. Walker, master, in 1 908, of the hunt. 



86 Aug. Off. Parl. Surv. 32. See ante, p. 256. 



modern times the Home Park was used 

 by two coursing societies, the Amicable and 

 the Speltham, which were eventually amal- 

 gamated into the South of England Coursing 

 Club. 29 The sport, which had considerably 

 declined in 1899, has, however, now been 

 abandoned, and the Home Park is occupied by 

 a golf club. 



" Reminiscences of a Huntsman, 18. 

 88 The Queen's Hounds and Stagbunting Recollections, 

 147. 



"Courting (Badminton Library), 225. 



262 



