A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



hunted the pack with success until his retirement 

 from active service in the field in 1895. In 

 1885 Mr. Selby Lowndes retired from the 

 mastership after forty-three years' office, all but 

 five seasons of which he had passed in Bucking- 

 hamshire ; and was succeeded by his son, Mr. 

 William Selby Lowndes, who retained Bentley 

 as huntsman, and continued to show sport worthy 

 of the traditions of the hunt. The Whaddon 

 Chase now reverted to two days a week as in 

 former years, but no other change of importance 

 is to be recorded. On Bentley's retirement 

 Charles Sturman succeeded him as huntsman and 

 remained in Mr. Selby Lowndes' service till 1901, 

 when he was succeeded by the first whipper-in, 

 George Jones. In 1903 Mr. W. Selby Lowndes, 

 junr., of Whaddon Chase, joined his father in 

 the mastership, and so father and son presided 

 over the destinies of the hunt until 1906, when 

 the former resigned, leaving the present master 

 to rule alone. George Jones died in 1906, and 

 his place was taken by Harry Goddard from the 

 Duhallow in Ireland. 



Those who hunt with the Whaddon Chase 

 are expected to support the hunt by subscription, 

 j35 being the minimum accepted from anyone 

 wishing to hunt regularly. The pack and 

 kennels at Whaddon, near Bletchley, are the 

 property of Mr. Selby Lowndes of Whaddon 

 Hall. 



Among the followers of the hunt are remem- 

 bered Major Whyte Melville, the novelist, Mr. 

 John Leech, the famous Punch artist, who found 

 in the Vale of Aylesbury numerous subjects for 

 his inimitable drawings, and the Hon. Robert 

 Grimston, so well known in cricketing circles : 

 Lord Petre, who kept staghounds in Essex, used 

 to make a point of visiting the Vale once a week, 

 and Lord Russell also hunted frequently with 

 Mr. Selby Lowndes. 



STAG HUNTING 

 THE ROYAL BUCKHOUNDS 



Though the history of the Royal Buckhounds 

 pertains to the neighbouring county of Berkshire, 

 the connexion of the pack with Buckinghamshire 

 where they had nineteen out of their forty-three 

 recognized places of meeting cannot be entirely 

 ignored. The most northerly meet was at High 

 Wycombe, the most easterly, Denham, and on 

 the west, Great Marlow. During the last years 

 of the existence of the royal pack, the spread of 

 game preservation in the county did something 

 to impair its amenities for stag hunting, but in 

 earlier days some great runs were enjoyed. In 

 1684 a deer gave the Duke of York and his suite 

 a tremendous run through Beaconsfield and 

 Amersham well into Oxfordshire. The duke 

 and Colonel James Graham, who in the next 

 year was appointed master, were among the few 



who got to the end. William Bartlett, for many 

 years whipper-in, told Lord Ribblesdale that he 

 had known hounds to run from Gerrards Cross 

 into the Vale of Aylesbury ; and the country 

 about Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield was by no 

 means to be despised, ' there is lots of room and 

 we had some capital gallops in that part of the 

 world,' writes Lord Ribblesdale. ' When there 

 had been plenty of rain these pale ploughs and 

 the high beech woods carried a capital scent, and 

 the configuration of the country wanted a gallop- 

 ing horse.' A memorable run in Lord Colville's 

 time was that of 2 March, 1868, when the stag 

 enlarged at Denham Court, ran past Pinner to 

 the foot of Harrow Hill, thence over Wormwood 

 Scrubbs to Paddington Goods Station, where he 

 was taken ; the king, then Prince of Wales, was 

 out on this occasion. One of the fastest runs 

 Lord Ribblesdale remembers was fifty minutes 

 with an outlying deer from Chalfont Park. The 

 deer, Bramshill by name, ran to Chalfont St. 

 Giles and soiled in the reservoir where it was 

 found necessary to leave him ; this run was 

 more like a flat race ; top speed and nothing 

 worth mention to jump the whole way. Salt 

 Hill, near Slough, was for a long time the open- 

 ing meet of the season ; the Slough country 

 meets were very popular in former days, but the 

 increase of cultivation spoiled it in the eyes of the 

 hunting fraternity. 



When the royal pack was given up in 1901, 

 the Berks and Bucks Farmers' Harriers, of which 

 Sir Robert Wilmot was master until 1907, were 

 converted into staghounds to hunt the country. 

 With kennels and deer paddocks at Binfield 

 Grove, Bracknell, this pack hunts two days 

 a week, showing good sport to its subscribers. 

 The Harrow or Middlesex side of the country is 

 not visited, the operations of the builder having 

 rendered this district practically impossible for 

 hunting. 



LORD ROTHSCHILD'S STAGHOUNDS 



Staghounds were maintained in the Vale of 

 Aylesbury in the 'thirties by Sir Charles Shakerly ; 

 but practically nothing has been recorded con- 

 cerning their doings, and the history of sport with 

 the carted deer begins in 1 839, when Baron Lionel 

 Rothschild purchased from Sir Charles the hounds, 

 fourteen or fifteen couple, the stock of deer and 

 deer cart, and took over the huntsman Roffey. 

 The hounds were first kennelled at Hastoe, near 

 Tring, the hunt horses being stabled at Tring 

 Park ; at a later date the pack was moved to 

 Mentmore, where Baron Mayer Rothschild lived ; 

 and about 1877 to their present kennels at Ascott, 

 near Leighton Buzzard, where the deer paddock 

 is also situated. When Baron Lionel Rothschild 

 acquired the hounds, he associated with himself 

 in the mastership his brothers Baron Mayer and 

 Sir Anthony de Rothschild. Baron Mayer offi- 

 ciated as sole master for a few seasons in the 



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