SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



where they had been established by Mr. 

 Sebright, on the site of the present kennels. 



Mr. Delm Radcliffe, when twenty-eight 

 years of age, formed a clever pack of harriers. 

 These he sold in 1834, when he became 

 master of the Hertfordshire Foxhounds. He 

 proved a most popular master, and greatly 

 improved the pack. He kept a copious diary 

 for nearly sixty years, and during the early 

 part of 1837 had such extraordinary sport 

 that a few extracts are worth quoting. 



'January 18, 1837. Met at Lamer Park. 

 Found in Lattimore's Gorse. Ran to Dow- 

 dells away for Sherrards, back by Brocket, 

 over the river to Sandridge, thence to 

 Symond's Hyde to Milwards Park, Hat- 

 field, towards Wrotham, and right-handed 

 into Mymms Great Woods. Two and a 

 half hours without a check. 



'January 20, 1837. Met at Hexton, found 

 in Bramingham, and had the most brilliant 

 thing ever seen in this county, getting away 

 with the Woburn fox, over the splendid vale 

 of Toddington six miles in twenty -five 

 minutes turned to left, and ran into him 

 in one hour and twenty minutes without a 

 check. 



'On January 23 met at Market Cell, and 

 had two good runs.' February 13, 15, 24, 

 and March i were all good days, and they 

 finished off on March 17 with the celebrated 

 Wendover run, which is thus described in Mr. 

 Delme Radcliffe's diary 



'March 17. Kennel. A day of unex- 

 ampled severity. The most extraordinary run 

 upon record in the annals of Herts. Having 

 drawn the Luton country all blank, trotted 

 away at two o'clock to Hamilton's (now 

 Kensworth) Gorse, found, went away in- 

 stantly at twenty minutes to three to Dead- 

 mansea, through the wood and on through 

 Beechwood, Ravensdale and Ashridge, over 

 the common and up to Berkhampstead Castle 

 in fifty-five minutes racing pace ; crossed the 

 London and North-Western Railway (then 

 making) beyond Northchurch, swam the 

 canal, and went on the same pace to Tring 

 Park, thence to Aston Turville, close up to 

 Aylesbury, thence to the left by Wendover 

 to Hampden, where, having beaten every 

 horse out of sight, no satisfactory account 

 could be rendered as to the casualty which 

 saved so gallant a fox. (The fox was found 

 dead in a faggot stack next morning). Boxall, 

 the huntsman, killed Burton's mare, tired two 

 others, and did not get beyond the canal at 

 Tring Park. Jem (James Simpkins, the 

 whip), upon Pippin, the Hon. E. Grimston, 

 E. T. Daniel, M. Evans, Hayward of St. 

 Albans and Goddard of Park Street lived the 



day through twenty-six miles at least done 

 in two hours twenty-five minutes. Hounds 

 carried a beautiful head throughout, and only 

 one was missing at the end of the day.' 



Ill health was unfortunately the cause of 

 Mr. Delme Radcliffe's resignation. There 

 is little doubt that his ill health was caused by 

 his devotion to hunting in the winter, and to 

 his anxiety over the publication of his well- 

 known work, The Noble Science, but he hunted 

 and rode well to the last year of his life. 



Hunting was by no means the only sport 

 in which Mr. Delm Radcliffe excelled. 

 From the day when at Eton he caught the 

 leviathan trout off the Cobler he was an 

 enthusiastic fisherman ; as a game and a 

 pigeon shot he had few equals he on one 

 occasion, after a five days contest, won the 

 'All England Stakes'; and as a yachtsman he 

 could hold his own against the best sailors of 

 the day. He kept a few racehorses, and was 

 a good amateur jockey. 



Mr. Delm6 Radcliffe was succeeded in 

 1 839 by Mr. Brand, afterwards Lord Dacre, 

 who moved the pack to kennels near his resi- 

 dence, The Hoo. Lord Dacre was very fond 

 of hunting. He was a good rider, and rode 

 beautiful thoroughbred horses. Boxall con- 

 tinued as his huntsman for three or four sea- 

 sons, when Jem Simpkins, who had been whip, 

 succeeded him ; but he proved to be as much 

 too slow as Boxall was too quick. In 1857 

 came Charles Ward, formerly whip to the 

 Cambridgeshire, then called 'Ubiquity Bob,' 

 and generally known as ' Bob ' Ward. He 

 had commenced with squire Osbaldeston 

 when he had the Burton country. Before 

 coming to Lord Dacre he had been with 

 Lord Southampton. No one could beat him 

 for energy or as a horseman ; he would often 

 ' pound ' the whole field over an awkward 

 place, notwithstanding his heavy weight. 

 And the condition of his hounds was 

 always first-class. It was often said that 

 Bob Ward hunted the fox and the hounds 

 hunted him, but no one was more patient on 

 a fair scenting day than he was. In the year 

 1853 these hounds had the longest run ever 

 recorded. The meet was at Broadwater. 

 They soon found, and hunted their fox for 

 four and a half hours, by which time every 

 horse in the field was knocked up and the 

 hounds enjoyed their kill to themselves. 



At the end of each hunting season an en- 

 joyable race meeting was held at The Hoo, 

 Lord Dacre's residence, for horses the pro- 

 perty of members of the Hunt Club and the 

 farmers of the country. These were flat 

 races, and were continued for many years. 

 In 1865 Mr. John Gerard Leigh of Luton 



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