A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



was burned to death in her dressing room at 

 Hatfield House, on November 26, 1836, at 

 the age of eighty-six. 



So long as the Hatfield Hounds existed the 

 kennels were at Hatfield. The three suc- 

 cessive huntsmen to the pack were Tyler, 

 Hooper and Wilkinson. They always wore 

 scarlet. But the Hatfield Hunt uniform was 

 unique, being sky blue with black collar and 

 cuffs, and silver buttons bearing the initials 

 'H.H.' The same button is now worn by 

 the members of the Hertfordshire Hunt, but 

 not the same coat, scarlet having been substi- 

 tuted for sky blue. Lady Salisbury herself 

 wore a bright blue habit with black collar 

 and cuffs and a hunting cap. 



Amongst those who hunted with the Hat- 

 field Hounds was the Rev. John Knight, 

 rector of Welwyn and fellow of All Souls. 

 He was popular in his parish as well as in 

 the hunting field, and was celebrated for 

 the thoroughbreds he rode, the way he 

 rode them, the lectures he gave on 'Riding 

 to Hounds,' and for the excellence and 

 fluency of his sermons. The Rev. Lord 

 Frederick Beauclerk, vicar of Kimpton and 

 St. Michael's, St. Albans, was another cleri- 

 cal member of the hunt. He rode regularly 

 also in the hunt steeplechases, in full hunt- 

 ing costume, and won the St. Albans steeple- 

 chase with 'The Poet,' a horse that had run 

 third in the St. Leger. 



The Duke of Wellington was a frequent 

 visitor at Hatfield ' to enjoy the pleasures of 

 the chase.' On one occasion, in 1819, a 

 shepherd was instructed by his master, who 

 objected to the hounds, to fasten up all the 

 gates on the farm. The duke rode up to one 

 of the gates, and the shepherd refused to let 

 him through. The shepherd went home and 

 told his master that he had stopped the soldier 

 that Bonaparte could not. 



Lady Salisbury gave up the hounds to the 

 Herts Hunt Club in 1828, and they were 

 then renamed the Hertfordshire Hounds. 



THE HERTFORDSHIRE HOUNDS 



The country now hunted by these hounds 

 lies in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, extend- 

 ing northwards from Elstree, on the borders 

 of Middlesex, to the vicinity of Bedford, 

 where it joins the Cambridgeshire and the 

 Oakley countries ; and eastward from the 

 borders of the Old Berkeley, for about 

 twenty-three miles, until it touches the 

 confines of the Puckeridge Hunt. The 

 country for hunting purposes has been de- 

 scribed as follows : ' All sorts of fences are 

 encountered in the Hertfordshire country, 



which varies much in character, some parts 

 being equal to the shires, while other parts 

 are not. There is a fair proportion of pas- 

 ture and large areas of plough and woodland.' 

 There are some coverts that the Hertford- 

 shire now shares with the Old Berkeley and 

 others which it hunts jointly with the Pucke- 

 ridge. 



The hunt is well supported by covert 

 owners and farmers, many of the latter 

 being regular followers and nearly all good 

 supporters of the hunt. Two, who still 

 ride to hounds, Mr. Hugh Smyth of Quicks- 

 wood, aged eighty-two, and William Smith 

 of Hill Farm, Bower Heath, aged eighty-one 

 (who has never missed an opening meet for 

 the last fifty years), are good specimens of the 

 sporting farmers. 



The Hertfordshire Hunt Club was estab- 

 lished in 1822, and was at first a social club 

 consisting of most of the prominent inhabi- 

 tants of the county who were interested in 

 any kind of sport. The following are the 

 names of some of the original members who 

 joined the club in 1822 : Lords Dacre, 

 Verulam, Clarendon, Cranborne, Lynedoch, 

 Glamis and Frederick Beauclerk, Sir C. 

 Cuyler, Sir Y. Ouseley, Captains Phillimore, 

 Shawe and Cuyler, Mr. Hale of Kings Wai- 

 den, Messrs. W. Hale, Delm, S. Smith, 

 Farquhar, Paris, G. S. Marten, Thomas 

 Kinder, Woollam, Lomax, Church, Heath- 

 cote, Howard, Gape, Latour, Campbell, Ross, 

 Felix Calvert, Astley-Cooper, Sowerby, Hal- 

 sey, etc. 



The club met once a quarter and had a 

 dinner, very often at Tommy Coleman's at 

 the Turf Hotel, St. Albans, or at the Sun 

 Hotel, Hitchin. In the year 1828 Lady 

 Salisbury presented the Hatfield Hounds 

 to the club, and they formed thei nucleus of 

 the present Hertfordshire pack. The club 

 now is limited to the principal covert owners 

 in the Hertfordshire country, and to those 

 who may be elected to the club and are full 

 subscribers to the hunt. 



In 1830 Mr. Sebright, son of the well 

 known Sir John Sebright, became master, 

 with Bob Oldaker, son of Mr. Harvey 

 Combe's Old Berkeley huntsman, as his first 

 huntsman. 1 In 1834 Mr. Delm6 Radcliffe 

 of Hitchin Priory, the author of the well 

 known book The Noble Science, or A Few 

 General Hints for the Use of the Rising Genera- 

 tion, especially those of the Hertfordshire Hunt 

 Club, became master ; and he continued to 

 keep the hounds at Kennesbourne Green, 



1 Bob Oldaker was killed by being thrown from 

 a dogcart. 



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