A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



at least twenty-five miles. Mr. Croome also 

 recalls a run with Mr. Gardiner's staghounds 

 from Cowley right away past Colesborne and 

 Northleach into the Heythrop country, on past 



Chipping Norton Junction and round to the left 

 to Chipping Norton town, where the stag was 

 taken. Hounds must have covered nearly forty 

 miles. 



FOX-HUNTING 



THE BERKELEY HUNT 



There is no doubt that up to the year 1796 

 hounds were kept at Berkeley and paid long visits 

 to other districts, where they would stay for a 

 time regulated by the supply of foxes. In the 

 year named it is clearly recorded that the hunts- 

 man, Oldaker, took them to Gerrard's Cross, in 

 Buckinghamshire, after which no one seems to 

 know what became of them. At any rate there 

 is no record of hounds being kept at Berkeley 

 from that date till 1807, when Lord Dursley, 

 who had just come of age, collected a pack from 

 which that now existing is descended. Richard 

 Cooper was then the huntsman. Soon after 

 this, the pack hunted three countries, viz., ; the 

 Berkeley in October, December, and February ; 

 the Cheltenham in November, January, and 

 March ; and while at Cheltenham horses and 

 hounds would travel by road to Broadway (now 

 the kennels of the North Cotteswold) and hunt 

 the Broadway country on the Saturday, returning 

 to Cheltenham on the Sunday. Part of the 

 Broadway country, extending to the Ilmington 

 Hills, was hunted in alternate months with the 

 Warwickshire pack ; Bourton Wood, which is 

 now hunted by the Heythrop, was also in the 

 Broadway country. From 1808 to 1827 James 

 Lepper was huntsman and was followed by 

 Poole ; but in 1833, with the appointment of 

 Harry Ayris as huntsman, the most flourishing 

 days of the Berkeley seem to have begun. 

 Ayris had come to Berkeley as whipper-in in 

 1826 ; he eventually retired in 1866 and lived 

 on one of Lord Fitzhardinge's farms near Sharp- 

 ness Point. Lord Dursley, who had become 

 Lord Segrave, would hunt the hounds himself 

 when with them, and especially when drawing 

 coverts ; but he was not a bold rider, and when 

 hounds really ran Harry Ayris was left to handle 

 them. The country hunted from Berkeley 

 Castle only extended as far as Almondsbury at 

 the Bristol end, and Frampton at the Gloucester 

 end. The best coverts in those days 1 were 

 Bushey Grove, Red Wood, Hills Wood, Nuster 

 Cliff Gorse (since called Nutstock), Parham brake, 

 Fishing House Withy Bed, Newman's Withy 

 Bed, Hay Wood, Tockington Park, Elmore, 

 Clifford's Gorse, Tortworth Coppice, Tintock, 

 Friar's Wood, Michael's Wood and Butler's 

 Gorse. The mention of Elmore shows that 

 occasional visits were paid to districts outside the 



regular hunting country. In 1858 Harry Ayris 

 told the writer that some twenty years before 

 that date hounds used to have an occasional day 

 both at Elmore and at Corse Grove, now part of 

 the Ledbury country. Lord Segrave planted on 

 his own estate many capital gorse and blackthorn 

 coverts, several of which can still be traced ; 

 but they are now groves of oak and elm, which 

 when cut down are replaced by larch and fir. 

 ' Clifford's Gorse ' is a puzzle, as there is no old 

 gorse covert on the Frampton estate ; but it was 

 perhaps the covert now known as the Blackthorn. 

 It has always been a very favourite covert and 

 would certainly have been mentioned. In the 

 Cheltenham and Broadway countries the favourite 

 coverts were Starwood, Chedworth and Withing- 

 ton Woods, Rendcombe Wood, Combend, Moor 

 Wood, West Wood, Guiting Grange Gorse, 

 Dowdeswell Wood, Chatcombe Wood, Stanton 

 Wood, Dumbleton Wood, Haleswood, and 

 Queen Wood, Foxcote Gorses (Mr. Canning's), 

 Weston Park, Bourton Wood, Buckland Wood, 

 Spring Hill, Meon Hill and several good gorses, 

 the five last mentioned being hunted from 

 Broadway. Harry Ayris states that the usual 

 point of an Elmore fox was for Robin's Wood 

 Hill. That was before the Gloucester and 

 Berkeley Canal was made. Between Gloucester 

 and Cheltenham were two favourite woods, 

 Badgeworth and Hatherley. Lord Segrave, 

 afterwards Earl Fitzhardinge, continued to hunt 

 the three countries at his own expense 3 till 

 his death in 1857. ^ ne ear ' was succeeded 

 in 1857 by his brother, Admiral Sir Maurice 

 Berkeley, afterwards first Baron Fitzhardinge. 

 Sir Maurice gave up the Cheltenham and Broad- 

 way countries, but reserved the vale between 

 Gloucester, Cheltenham, and Tewkesbury, and 

 set to work to make the most of the real Berke- 

 ley country. The late Mr. Barwick Baker of 

 Hardwicke Court, Gloucester, gave him invalu- 

 able help by planting in 1858 the two coverts 

 known as Monk's Hill Gorse and Hardwicke 

 Gorse. Though these consist more of black- 

 thorn than gorse nowadays, trees have not been 

 allowed to grow up and kill the undergrowth. 

 Colonel Master planted the gorse below 

 Knowle Park and a withy bed called ' Gus's ', 

 and subsequently in 1877 the late Mr. Curtis 

 Hayward of Quedgeley House, Gloucester, com- 

 menced the planting of Quedgeley Gorse, 



1 New Sporting Mag. 



' The cost was about 4,000 a year, jinn, of 

 Sporting, i8zz. 



288 



