258 KINGSCLERE 



where Mr. William Blenkiron raised Hermit and 

 Galopin. We find interesting traces of both 

 Richard of the Lion Heart and King John at 

 Kingsclere. The former visited Freemantle once, 

 and that was on his way from the Midland Counties 

 to Winchester, after his return from captivity and 

 just before his second coronation. It is recorded 

 that King John was at Freemantle Park on no fewer 

 than thirty-seven occasions. Clearly it will be the 

 duty of the first historian or novelist who is 

 impelled to give us another and more favourable 

 view of King John to study him from the sports- 

 man's point of view, beginning his researches at 

 Kingsclere. 



The sporting Duke of Cumberland — ' if not the 

 largest, certainly the most successful, breeder of his 

 time' 1 — trained his horses on Kingsclere Downs. 

 1 In the opposite hollow (to Cottington's Hill) of the 

 chalk downs,' writes Mr. Money, ' stood Canham or 

 Cannon's Lodge. It was built in the seventeenth 

 century by Charles Duke of Bolton, and was oc- 

 cupied as a hunting box by the Earl of Mexborough, 

 and also by the Duke of Cumberland, who purchased 

 it of the Duke of Bolton, and his race-horses were 

 trained on the neighbouring Downs.' Sir John Lade, 

 described as ' a famous character,' also trained at 

 Kingsclere. There is a tradition to the effect that 

 the famous horse Eclipse did some of his work here- 

 abouts. In the words of one writer — who, however, 

 1 The Horse-Breeder's Handbook. 



