A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Hoo took the hounds, and built the magnifi- 

 cent kennels and stables on the site of the old 

 ones at Kennesbourne Green. They are said 

 to be ' the best in Europe, bar none.' Mr. 

 Leigh's pack had been for forty years care- 

 fully bred. Mr. Delm6 Radcliffe only re- 

 tained fifteen of the fifty couples he took 

 from Mr. Sebright, recruiting them largely 

 from the Fitzhardinge blood, and left a pack 

 of sixty couples as near perfection as was pos- 

 sible. They did not deteriorate under Lord 

 Dacre, who judiciously took for some seasons 

 the Belvoir draft. They were during Mr. 

 Leigh's mastership still what hounds should 

 be, and Ward brought them out in condition, 

 reflecting much credit on his system of hound 

 management. 



During Mr. Leigh's too short reign hunt- 

 ing flourished, as the following quotation 

 shows : ' On all sides foxes are well pre- 

 served and plentiful on the south and south- 

 west by Lord Verulam, Mr. Halsey, Mr. 

 Crawley and Mr. Leigh ; in the centre, by 

 Mr. Hale of Kingswalden and Lord Dacre ; 

 on the east, by Lord Cowper and Mr. Abel 

 Smith ; on the north-west, by Lady Cowper 

 at Wrest Park, and by the Duke of Bedford 

 at Woburn, adjoining the grass vale at Tod- 

 dington termed the " Elysian fields." On the 

 extreme north, between Mr. Richard Marsh 

 of Little Offley, Captain Young of Hexton, 

 and Mr. Delmd RadclifFe, whose properties 

 join, the animal is ever in abundance, espe- 

 cially of late years, since they have been 

 joined by Mr. Sowerby, who since his acces- 

 sion to Putteridge Bury has shown foxes 

 together with pheasants in numbers.' 1 



On the death of Mr. Gerard Leigh, in 

 1875, a committee was formed to take over 

 the hounds, consisting of Lord Dacre, Cap- 

 tain Young of Hexton, and Colonel Somerset 

 of Enfield Court. In 1879 Lord Dacre re- 

 signed, and his place on the committee was 

 taken by Colonel Blake of Danesbury. Two 

 years later Captain Young resigned ; and in 

 1885 the joint masters and Bob Ward the 

 huntsman resigned, and Captain Peacock be- 

 came master. Captain Peacock was a very 

 keen sportsman. He lived at the kennels, 

 and hunted the hounds himself with consider- 

 able success until 1888, when he was suc- 

 ceeded by Mr. E. R. Sworder, who had been 

 master of the East Kent Hounds. He brought 

 some good hounds with him and improved 

 the pack. At first he hunted one of the 

 packs of hounds himself, and Charles Harris, 

 who had been for many years first whip to 

 old Bob Ward, hunted the other pack until 



1 Baily's Magazine (1873), P- z ^2. 



William Wells came as huntsman in 1893, 

 when, owing to an accident, Mr. Sworder 

 had to give up hunting the hounds himself, but 

 continued the mastership until 1898, in which 

 year Mr. Fenwick Harrison of Kings Walden, 

 Bury, Hitchin, became joint master with Mr. 

 Charles Part of Aldenham, the former look- 

 ing after the north part of the country and 

 the latter undertaking the southern part. 

 They are the present masters of the Hert- 

 fordshire Hounds. 



William Wells is still the huntsman, as he 

 has been since 1893. He ' s a most capable 

 man, both in the kennel and in the field, and 

 the pack has been greatly improved during 

 his time. He has had great experience, first 

 as whip to George Carter with the Milton 

 Hounds, then as first whip to Gillard with 

 the Belvoir Hounds, where he was well 

 known as a good rider, having beautiful hands 

 and seat on a horse. He afterwards be- 

 came huntsman to the Puckeridge Hounds 

 under Mr. Gosling, and from there he came 

 to the Hertfordshire. He has shown very 

 good sport, and many good runs have been 

 enjoyed under his patient management of the 

 hounds in the field. Joseph Davis is still 

 whip ; his knowledge of the country is very 

 great, he having held that position for the 

 long period of twenty-eight years. 



Out of many good runs with the Hert- 

 fordshire of late years, since Wells has 

 hunted the hounds, one of the best was 

 from Coomb Wood, Shenley, on April 2, 

 1897, through High Canons and Dyrham, 

 the fox being killed in Totteridge Park 

 fifty minutes without a check, all over the 

 finest grass country. Another was on Jan- 

 uary 17, 1900. The fox was found out- 

 side The Meg, Hexton, and ran for three 

 hours in two large rings, when he was given 

 up at Higham church, as all the horses were 

 dead beat. 



THE PUCKERIDGE HOUNDS 



This country was first called by its present 

 name in 1802, when Mr. Sampson Hanbury 

 built kennels at Puckeridge. In the eigh- 

 teenth century it was called the Hertfordshire 

 or Mr. Calvert's. Its early history is out- 

 lined by 'Arundel,' writing in the Field of 

 February 2, 1889. 'So long ago as 1725 a 

 few hounds were kept at Cheshunt near Brox- 

 bourne, one of the proprietors being Mr. Cal- 

 vert, an ancestor of Mr. Felix Calvert of Fur- 

 neaux Pelham, and of Colonel Calvert, late 

 master of the Crawley and Horsham Hounds. 

 These hounds Mr. Calvert subsequently pur- 

 chased and moved to Albury, where he was 



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