A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



on Mr. Clifford's property at Frampton ; in 

 1899 another was planted on the Frocester 

 estate, named ' Adjutant ' after the owner's son, 

 Major Graham Clarke, who acted as Adjutant 

 to the Imperial Yeomanry in the Boer War. 

 At the present time there are about 70 couple 

 of hounds in the kennels ; they hunt four days a 

 week in the Vale, and one day in the hills. 

 The Berkeley is one of the few packs that 

 have not followed the fashion of breeding for 

 black and tan colour ; the old white and badger- 

 pies being greatly treasured ; they have plenty 

 of cry. In old days both packs were mixed, 

 but now there are three, viz. dogs, bitches, and 

 mixed. When founding his pack in 1808 Lord 

 Dursley's own expression was, that he had to 

 take what he could get from other kennels, 

 namely those hounds ' whose capital sentence had 

 been commuted to transportation." Probably the 

 most successful sire used was Lord Henry Ben- 

 tinck's Contest in 1854. This hound was the 

 father of Cromwell, perhaps one of the best 

 hounds ever known. He was white marked with 

 grey badger-pie. The late Rev. John Russell of 

 Devonshire asked Harry Ayris how he came to 

 send such a hound for Lord Portman to breed 

 from. ' Because,' said the old huntsman ' I will 

 back him to find a fox, hunt a fox, and kill a fox 

 against any hound in England.' The Warwick- 

 shire Saffron and the Grove Barrister also did 

 their share in improving the pack ; latterly the 

 Warwickshire Artifice and the Tickham 

 Guider have been in high favour. Of late 

 the Pytchley, Cottesmore, South Shropshire and 

 Crawley and Horsham and the Blankney have 

 patronized Berkeley blood. 



Wire is far less common in the Berkeley than 

 in any other country known to the writer. This 

 is mainly a consequence of the natural sporting 

 instinct of the farmers, many of whom are very 

 fine riders ; also the popularity of each succes- 

 sive master. The farmers passed a rule for 

 their own Agricultural Society that no one should 

 be allowed to take a prize who had had wire 

 in or alongside his hedges during the previous 

 hunting season. Danger signals are strongly 

 objected to as being an excuse for keeping up 

 wire. Perhaps the chief drawback to the country 

 is its narrowness, the average distance from the 

 Severn to the hills being only five miles. The 

 bulk of the coverts are not three miles from the 

 hills, and a good fox will make his point there in 

 twenty minutes. The Midland Railway also cuts 

 up the country badly, running its whole length 

 from Tewkesbury to Bristol. In spite of this, 

 very good sport is shown, and in two or three 

 seasons as many as a hundred brace of foxes 

 have been killed. 



THE COTTESWOLD 



The country now known as the Cotteswold 

 was the scene of some famous runs in earlier 



days. One of the finest took place in the days 

 before the Berkeley Hounds visited the district 

 with regularity. It occurred on 8 December, 

 1795 ; when the Warwickshire, then under the 

 mastership of Mr. Corbet, sometimes drew as far 

 west as the Cotteswold country. Finding at 

 Welford, they ran by Leamington Heath, Nor- 

 ton Common, Evenlode Heath, Loughborough 

 Lees, Donnington, Eyford, Cold Aston, Farm- 

 ington Grove, Salperton, to Sandywell Park, 5 

 miles from Cheltenham, 25 miles straight and 

 35 miles as hounds ran, in 3 hours 50 minutes. 

 The first hour and a half they ran without 

 check ; the second hour and a half they hunted 

 slowly, and the last 50 minutes they ran without 

 a check. There were fewer fences everywhere 

 in those days, and the Cotteswolds were almost 

 unenclosed. On I January, 1822, the Berkeley 

 Hounds had the longest run, in point of time, 

 ever known in the Cotteswold country. It was 

 such a twisting journey that the distance cannot 

 be calculated with any accuracy, but the time 

 was five hours and a half ! They met at Queen- 

 wood, Southam, 3 miles from Cheltenham, and 

 ran up over Cleeve and Nottingham Hills, and 

 down to the left to Gotherington, on to Winch- 

 combe. Thence they ran back to Gotherington, 

 Cleeve Hill, and down the western side of the 

 hill to Agg's Hill. Turning up left, they ran 

 east and were stopped at Guiting. 



The history of the Cotteswold Hunt dates 

 from 1857. On 22 December of that year a 

 circular issued by Mr. W. N. Skillicorne, J.P., 

 father of the present mayor of Cheltenham, 

 announced that Mr. Cregoe Colmore of Charl- 

 ton Kings was willing to hunt the Cheltenham 

 and Broadway country, which had been given 

 up by Sir Maurice Berkeley, three days a week 

 for a minimum subscription of 1,500, guaran- 

 teed for three years. Mr. Colmore also under- 

 took to hunt the Broadway country one day a 

 fortnight, and to have a meet on that the east 

 side of the Cheltenham country once a fort- 

 night. The Broadway committee undertook to 

 find him ^400 a year for doing this, and for 

 some years fulfilled the engagement. In 1865 

 there was a difficulty in getting the Broadway 

 money, and the Cheltenham committee and the 

 master proposed to hunt the Broadway country 

 ' when convenient." Lord Redesdale, then 

 Chairman of Committee of the House of Lords, 

 ex-M.F.H. of the Heythrop, and a large land- 

 owner, objected to this proposal, and was strongly 

 supported by all the chief owners in a 'declara- 

 tion' of 22 September, 1865, signed by Lords 

 Harrowby, Wemyss and March, Beauchamp, 

 Northwick, Sudeley, Sommerville, and others. 

 The Cheltenham committee offered to refer the 

 matter to arbitration, but the Broadway people 

 refused. Their refusal was due to their appre- 

 hension lest their country should be partitioned 

 between the Warwickshire, Cotteswold, and Hey- 

 throp. Thanks to Lord Redesdale and the other 



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