A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



The mastership must before this date have 

 passed into the hands of the Hon. and Rev. W. 

 Capel, vicar of Watford, for in July, 1802, an 

 action for trespass in Cashiobury Park was 

 brought against him and the Berkeley Hounds 

 by his brother the Earl of Essex. The case was 

 tried before Lord Ellenborough at the Hertford 

 Assizes ; 40*. damages were awarded by the 

 jury. At that time cases of a similar nature 

 were being brought against masters of hounds 

 in other parts of England. On 1 1 October, 

 1810, a meeting of landowners in the Burnham 

 and Stoke Hundreds was held and a resolution 

 was passed, ' That the hunting with foxhounds 

 in this neighbourhood will be injurious to the 

 value and enjoyment of property, and is wholly 

 unsuitable to a country so near the metropolis.' 

 Among the signatories were the Duke of Somer- 

 set, Lord Boston, Lord Gambier, Rt. Hon. J. 

 Sullivan, Sir R. B. Harvey, Bart., Lord Gren- 

 ville, Hon. G. Irby, Thos. Hibbert, esq., Charles 

 Clowes, esq. These difficulties, however, were 

 overcome and hunting continued. In the next 

 year hounds meeting at Gerrards Cross found 

 ' at the back of the Nine Pins publichouse ' (now 

 One Pin Gorse) ; 'the fox went off in high 

 style over a fine country, and after a very capital 

 run of an hour and a half was killed in Shardeloes 

 Park near Amersham.' l A week later they ran 

 a fox from Pollards Wood (Chalfont) ' and killed 

 him in Mr. Dorrien's park (Haresfoot) at Berk- 

 hampstead.' 



Mr. Harvey Combe succeeJed Mr. Capel. 

 An obituary notice of Mr. Combe states that he 

 was master, with one short interval, from 1813 

 to i84O. 2 His kennels were first at Gerrards 

 Cross and afterwards at Parsonage Farm, Rick- 

 mansworth, and he drew the countries comprised 

 in the present Old Berkeley East and West 

 Hunts. 3 In 1824 he also undertook the country 

 now hunted by the Old Berkshire and beyond, 

 for which purpose he occupied kennels at King- 

 ston Bagpuize (Berkshire), and, it is said, at 

 Lechlade (Gloucestershire), and at Cricklade 

 (Wiltshire). In 1826 Mr. Combe gave up the Old 

 Berkshire country and confined himself to the Old 

 Berkeley, hunting South Buckinghamshire with 

 part of West Hertfordshire. His first huntsman 

 was Tom Oldaker, who, as previously stated, had 

 begun life with Lord Berkeley. Oldaker was 

 the subject of two fine paintings by Ben 

 Marshall ; the engravings after these pictures are 

 well known ; in one he is mounted on a bay 

 gelding, Brush, in the other on a mare, Pickle, 

 and in both he has with him some hounds of 

 stamp as good as any modern kennel might be 

 glad to own. Brush was a famous hunter ; some 

 verses on his death appeared in The Sporting 



1 Sporting Magazine, xxxvii, 268. 

 ' The Field, 4 Dec. 1858. 



1 He seems also to have hunted occasionally in 

 South Oxfordshire by invitation of the landowners. 



Magazine of i8iy. 4 An engraving of Mr. 

 Combe mounted on Ferdinand is also extant. It 

 is said that he refused 1,000 for this horse. 

 Bob Ward, subsequently well known as hunts- 

 man to the Hertfordshire, was in Mr. Harvey 

 Combe's service as second whipper-in for three 

 seasons from 1834. 



In 1831 Captain Sullivan appears to have I 

 been master for one season, in 1832 Mr. Combe 

 again, in 1833 Captain Freeman from the South- 

 wold, and Mr. Combe again the next year, 1834, 

 when he gave his hounds to the Surrey Union 

 and purchased Mr. Osbaldeston's famous Pytch- 

 ley pack (50 couples of working hounds and a 

 brilliant entry of 19 couples), which he retained 

 until 1840, when Mr. T. N. Allen, of the 

 Vache, Chalfont St. Giles, succeeded him. Mr. 

 Combe lent his hounds up to Mr. Allen's retire- 

 ment in 1842, when they were sold at Tatter- 

 sail's, and realized at auction the record price of 

 6,5 1 1 guineas. There is some doubt as to the 

 genuineness of the sale, but at all events the 

 hounds passed into possession of Lord South- 

 ampton, Master of the Grafton, and subsequently 

 became the property of Mr. Selby Lowndes. 



For seven years after 1842 the country seems 

 to have been abandoned, but in 1849 tne Earl f 

 Lonsdale again started the Old Berkeley with 

 kennels at Grove, Tring. He had kept harriers 

 there from 1843, and continued to maintain 

 them with the foxhounds, each pack hunting 

 twice a week. While the foxhounds confined 

 themselves strictly to their own country, the 

 harriers used to hunt in the Aylesbury district, 

 and even so far north as Wingrave. The custom 

 was to hunt hare in the morning and to turn out 

 a bag fox afterwards, a proceeding which natu- 

 rally provoked some satire at the time. How- 

 ever, these foxes, said to have been procured 

 direct from Lowther Castle and to have been 

 kept well exercised in their quarters at the Tring 

 kennels, showed undeniably good runs. His 

 lordship, who hunted from town, is said to have 

 worn drab breeches, a brown overcoat, and a flat 

 hat, which in bad weather was tied under his 

 chin by a black silk handkerchief. The estab- 

 lishment at Tring was maintained in first-rate 

 style, and the foxhounds proper, under this- 

 mastership, probably showed the best genuine 

 sport with wild foxes ever seen in the Old 

 Berkeley country. James Morgan and Goddard 

 Morgan were successively huntsmen, and Lord 

 Lonsdale hunted the country at his own expense 

 for thirteen years, retiring in 1862. The 

 hounds were bought by the supporters of the 

 hunt at Tattersall's on 14 April of that year, 

 but the harriers do not appear to have been dis- 

 persed until June, 1864. From 1862 to 1867 

 Viscount Maiden, father of the present Earl of 

 Essex, was master. 



By arrangement with Mr. John Brown of 



4 Op. cit. xlix, 194. 



224 



