A HISTORY OF DORSET 



Mr. Drax, who hunted the county from 1833 

 to 1853, h^^ ^^^ support of all those farmers 

 and landowners who naturally objected to the 

 long distances necessitated by Mr. Farquharson's 

 huge country. In 1840 he purchased Lord 

 Portman's hounds, and the whole of his breeding 

 may be found in The Blackmore Vale Hounds from 

 1833 to 1900. He appears to have used all the 

 good kennels, including those' of the duke of 

 Beaufort, Lord Middleton, Mr. Codrington, Mr. 

 Assheton Smith, the duke of Rutland, Lord 

 Fitzwilli.-im, and Sir T. Sykes. 



Miss Serrell, in her most interesting book, 

 Hound and Terrier in the Field, says : — 



Mr. Drax had a great eye for colour in his own 

 and his sen-ants' dress in the field. The latter were 

 attired in canary-coloured plush coats, with blue 

 collars bound with gold lace, and a gold fox with a 

 silver brush on each side of the collar. For the rest 

 they had red waistcoats, white breeches, white tops, 

 black velvet caps, and white gloves. The members of 

 the hunt sported scarlet, but the master came out in 

 a sky-blue coat, a cream-coloured waistcoat em- 

 broidered with gold, and a top-hat. On certain days 

 Mr. Drax would mount himself and his men on grey 

 horses, though he did not by any means confine his 

 establishment to horses of that colour. 



After the retirement of Mr. Drax there 

 appears to have been for a time a quick suc- 

 cession of masters, the names of Mr. Whieldon, 

 Captain Stanley, Viscount Dungarvan, Lord 

 Harry Thynne, and Mr. R. Strachey occurring 

 between 1853 and 1858. In 1858 the reins of 

 office were taken up by Mr. George Digby 

 Wingfield-Digby of Sherborne Castle. Mr. 

 Digby became a most popular master, and being 

 very fond of a fast ride over the Vale, he gave 

 his attention to breeding pace in his hounds, so 

 that he altogether changed the character of the 

 pack. He specially favoured the Sparkford Vale, 

 which is all grass and flying fences, and tradition 

 has it that Mr. Digby was so unwilling to be 

 deprived of a gallop in his favourite country 

 that a fox would often travel with him in a 

 basket under the seat of his brougham to be 

 turned out if required. In Mr. Digby's time 

 John Press came as huntsman to the Blackmore 

 Vale from the Cambridgeshire. He had been 

 whipper-in to Mr. Farquharson's hounds under 

 the famous Jim Treadwell, and afterwards was 

 huntsman to the Crawley and Horsham and the 

 Cambridgeshire. He is said to have been an 

 extremely clever huntsman, and to have had 

 almost preternatural abilitv to tell where his 

 hunted fox had gone. When hounds were at 

 fault he would catch them up, gallop off as 

 straight as a line to some point which he had in 

 his mind, recover the hunted fox, and kill him, so 

 that often the field never knew that hounds had 

 been off the line at all. 



In 1865 Sir Richard George Glynn, third 

 baronet, of Gaunts House, near VVimborne, took 



the hounds, and Mr. Digby made over the whole 

 establishment — horses, hounds, and hunt servants 

 — to him, the kennels still remaining at Charlton 

 Horethorne. Press remained with the new 

 master for eleven years, and was soon recognized 

 as one of the first huntsmen of the day. Miss 

 Serrell gives us an amusing story of his resource 

 in the field : — 



It was early in the year, when Sir Richard met at 

 Henstridge Ash. The first coverts to be drawn were 

 those of Inwood, and Press, finding that there was no 

 scent and no chance of sport, took his precautions to 

 have a good d.iy to his credit in spite of difficulties. 

 In the first covert into which hounds were thrown 

 they chopped a fox almost under the nose of the horse 

 of the only member of the field who happened to be 

 within sight. Press was down in a moment, and as 

 he took the fox from hounds he looked round, and 

 seeing but the one man near, he exclaimed, ' Not a 

 word, sir, if you please,' and springing back into the 

 saddle, he put the fox up on the highest branch of a 

 fir-tree he could reach. Then with a touch on his 

 horn he gathered and lifted hounds cleverly out of 

 covert, and riding almost in a line with them, cheered 

 and encouraged them on in the direction of the 

 vilLige. A good thirty minutes' gallop followed, by 

 Templecombe and Stow-ell back to Henstridge Ash 

 and up to the covert whence it had started. Here 

 Press, well in front of the field, threw down the fox, 

 and with a loud who-whoop celebrated the obsequies 

 in due form, and received the congratulations of the 

 field on a good day. The one somewhat mystified 

 follower of the huntsman's tactics obeyed Press's in- 

 junction to keep the secret, and it was not till some 

 time afterwards that a rumour of the day's proceedings 

 came to be noised abroad. As Press explained the 

 reasons for his manoeuvre, ' You see, sir, I knew 'twas 

 our only chance to-day, so I took it.' 



After living in retirement at Milborne Port 

 for a few years Press died in 1885 in the County 

 Asylum at the age of sixty-seven. 



Another famous huntsman succeeded him, 

 George Orbell, who had commenced his hunting 

 days with harriers in Hertfordshire. He then 

 went as whip to Lord Poltimore, and from him 

 to the Blackmore Vale, Sir VVatkin VVynn's 

 hounds, and the South Berks successively. After 

 serving as kennel huntsman to the South Notts, 

 and then as huntsman to the Craven, and after 

 that to the RufFord, he returned to the Craven, 

 from which pack he came to succeed Press with 

 the Blackmore Vale. 



Mr. Merthyr Guest, to whom Sir Richard 

 Glynn gave the hounds, succeeded that gentle- 

 man in 1884 and remained as master till 1900. 

 He was a heavy-weight, a consistently hard 

 rider, and always rode splendid horses well up 

 to his weight. He had a great partiality for 

 greys, and during his term of office it was a 

 wonderful sight to see the master and all the 

 hunt servants mounted on grey horses. After 

 1885 Mr. Guest increased the hounds to three 

 packs and hunted six days a week, the huntsinan 



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