A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



brated action was brought against him by his 

 brother, the Earl of Essex, for trespass. The 

 Old Berkeley Hunt had been warned off Lord 

 Essex's land, and yet Mr. Capel, hounds and 

 huntsmen rode through Cassiobury Park one 

 day in pursuit of a fox. Lord Ellenborough 

 decided that as the trespass was committed for 

 the purpose of diversion and amusement, and 

 not as the only means of destroying a noxious 

 animal, the verdict must be in favour of the 

 plaintiff, the Earl of Essex. 



Many curious stories are told of Mr. Capel, 

 who was quite a character in the neighbour- 

 hood of Watford. On a Sunday, after per- 

 forming the morning service, he constantly 

 was obliged to take the coach at Watford so 

 as to be at some distant meet of his hounds 

 on the Monday. One Sunday he requested 

 the Aldenham parson to come over and take 

 his duty, but this gentleman declined to do 

 so as he was busy clipping his horse, in those 

 days a laborious occupation. 



Nearly all the Capel family were keen 

 sportsmen. Mr. Harvey Combe, in recom- 

 mending one of the Hon. William's sons to 

 ' Nimrod,' says : ' He is well bred for a 

 sportsman. I remember one day with the 

 Old Berkeley Hounds there were out (all 

 mounted) his grandfather, his grandmother, 

 his father, his mother, two of his sisters and 

 two of his brothers.' When Mr. Capel re- 

 signed, Mr. Harvey Combe took the hounds 

 about the year 1 820, and with Tom Oldaker 

 as huntsman hunted the Berkshire and south 

 Oxfordshire countries, in addition to the pre- 

 sent Old Berkeley country, from the Gerrard's 

 Cross kennel. 



In 1826, though he gave up the Berkshire 

 country, he still hunted the south Oxford- 

 shire. And the Old Berkeley Hunt country 

 then extended from Scratch Wood (seven 

 miles from London) to Cirencester in Glou- 

 cestershire, or, as it was said, ' from Barnet 

 to Bath, with leave to draw the Zoological 

 Gardens.' 



Mr. Harvey Combe was a real good sports- 

 man of the old school, and travelled immense 

 distances to be with his hounds, his home 

 being in Surrey. No one could have been 

 more zealous, and he spared neither trouble 

 nor expense to show good sport. In 1833 

 Captain Freeman was master for one season, 

 with Baily as his huntsman. In 1834 Mr. 

 Harvey Combe became master a second time. 

 He bought Mr. Osbaldeston's celebrated pack 

 of hounds that had been previously bought in 

 at Tattersall's for 4,600, and the kennel was 

 at Parsonage Farm, Rickmansworth. Richard 

 'Hills was huntsman, succeeded by Will Todd. 

 A great run at this time was from Denham 



Marsh through Ruislip, with a kill at Hen- 

 don seventeen miles, the last twelve being 

 all over grass. 



In 1840 Mr. Thomas Allen of The Vache 

 took the mastership for a short period. After 

 his retirement, Lord Lonsdale hunted the Old 

 Berkeley country round Tring and Chesham 

 from 1842 to 1862. In his later years he 

 used to bring down foxes with him from 

 London, which practice was celebrated in 

 verse. The first lines run as follows 



There is an earl of ancient name 



Who hunts the fox, but prefers him tame. 



His father had mounted his thoroughbred horse, 



And viewed the wild fox from his native gorse. 



His son has come down by a second-class train 



Worried the bagman, and home again. 



These bagmen were occasionally captured 

 alive and turned out again another day. 



Jem Morgan, his huntsman, was killed by 

 a fall, and was succeeded by Godard Morgan, 

 a fine horseman with a reputation for gate 

 jumping. 



Lord Lonsdale gave up the Old Berkeley 

 Hounds to Lord Maiden in 1862, who kept 

 them on Chorley Wood Common, where 

 they still are. In 1867 Mr. C. A. Barnes, 

 who had before kept harriers, became master 

 for two years, being succeeded by Mr. Lei- 

 cester Hibbert of Chalfont and Mr. Blount 

 as joint masters. These gentlemen kept the 

 hounds until 1875, when they were suc- 

 ceeded by Mr. A. Longman as master, who 

 built kennels at his place at Shendish, near 

 Kings Langley, and moved the hounds there 

 from Chorley Wood. In 1881 the country 

 was divided, Mr. Longman taking all the 

 country in Hertfordshire under the name 

 Old Berkeley East, and Mr. Austin Mc- 

 Kenzie taking all the Buckinghamshire part 

 of the country under the name Old Berkeley 

 West. 



This arrangement lasted until 1885, when 

 the country was united again and hunted by 

 Mr. Harding Cox. He took great interest 

 in the hounds, and had a very good pack, 

 owing largely to the purchase of the Blank- 

 ney pack ; but in 1888 the country was again 

 divided into the same divisions as before, both 

 divisions being managed by committees. The 

 committee of the Old Berkeley East which 

 hunted the Hertfordshire side of the country 

 consisted of the Earl of Clarendon, who acted 

 as field master, with the Hon. A. Holland 

 Hibbert as hon. secretary. 



In 1891 Mr. R. B. Webber (whose father 

 had kept a pack of harriers at Aldenham) 

 succeeded the committee, and remains still 

 the master of the Old Berkeley East. For 



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