A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



ahead ; the uncoped walls are much alike ; 

 ditches on either side of the fences are rare, and 

 wire is rarely seen. There is much grass, and 

 the plough is very light. The winding ' deans ' 

 with steep sides are trying to horses. On the 

 hills the best meets are at Hawling Downs, 

 Andoversford, Puesdown, Foss Cross, Fivemile 

 House, Rendcombe, Salperton, and North 

 Cerney. 



The Cotteswold Hounds have had only three 

 huntsmen in forty-nine years, Charles Turner, 

 T. Hill, and C. Travess, the last of whom has 

 served during thirty-four seasons. Among fa- 

 mous followers of the Cotteswold may be men- 

 tioned the late ' Bob ' Chapman, one of the 

 largest hunter dealers in England ; Chapman 

 ' horsed ' the Badminton hunt for many years ; 

 Mr. A. Le Blanc, formerly hon. secretary, who 

 was seen at some meets in 190506 despite his 

 ninety-two years, and Mr. Brigstocke. Other 

 notable followers have been Mr. Hugh Owen 

 and his brother ' Roddy,' who won the Grand 

 National on Father O'Flynn, and died of cholera 

 in the Soudan ; Jacob, a dealer and a great per- 

 former in spite of his 1 6 stone, who afterwards 

 became a picture dealer in London ; Mr. Phillips, 

 who died of heart disease in the hunting-field, 

 aged seventy-four, and was the best man of his 

 age in the hunt ; and old Joe Titcomb who has 

 been second horseman to the huntsman for over 

 forty years. The most famous runner was Jack 

 Cavanagh, who died in 1897. For over thirty 

 years he was at every meet, and followed the 

 hounds till they turned for home. 



THE NORTH COTTESWOLD 



The ' Broadway ' country, which forms a 

 large portion of the territory now known as the 

 North Cotteswold, was hunted as far back as 

 1788 by a Mr. Dalton, whose name was origi- 

 nally Naper. 1 Mr. Dalton kennelled his hounds 

 at Slaughter, and had as huntsman a man named 

 Sebright. Sebright's name is memorable by 

 reason of the fame of his son Tom, who, follow- 

 ing his father's profession, became huntsman to 

 Lord Fitzwilliam, and remained in the earl's 

 service for nearly forty years. Tom Sebright 

 was born at Stow-on-the-Wold. When the 

 North Cotteswold became an independent country 

 on I May, I8&7, 2 the supporters of hunting in 

 the district rose to their new responsibilities with 

 energy. Between May and November a site 

 was secured at Broadway, and kennels were built 

 at a cost of 2,750. The Earl of Coventry 

 accepted the mastership, and for six seasons 

 hunted it at his own cost, showing excellent 

 sport. 



1 Bell's Life, 10 Feb. 1866. 

 * See Cotteswold Hunt, 291. 



Among the runs of which Lord Coventry has 

 preserved record, one on 26 November, 1868, de- 

 serves mention, though hounds failed to account 

 for their fox. They ran in dense fog from Buck- 

 land by Snows-hill Bottom, Farncombe, Saintly 

 Weston, Middle Hill, Letscombe and Slate-pits, 

 where they lost after three hours and a half. 

 Another noteworthy run occurred on 9 January, 

 1869, when Lord Coventry gave a breakfast at 

 the 'Lygon Arms,' Broadway. After a run and 

 kill they found at Buckland Wood, and ran up- 

 hill three miles to Broadway Tower (where the 

 master got his second horse), and then by Shar- 

 well and through Northwick Park and Snows- 

 hill Farm to Cutsdean, where they checked. 

 Thence they ran by Ford Hill Farm and Rock's 

 Pool to Mr. Sarton's house at Swell, near Stow, 

 where they killed in the garden, with only thir- 

 teen up. Distance, as hounds ran, fifteen miles ; 

 time, 70 minutes. Lord Coventry refers to 

 31 December, 1869,35 'the best day's sport I 

 have seen in a long career.' After a brilliant 

 twenty-five minutes ending in a kill, they ran a 

 fox from Buckland Wood to Stow-on-the-Wold, 

 a thirteen-mile point and fifteen as hounds ran, 

 killing in the open near the quarry. Few got 

 to the end of the run. 



Lord Coventry resided at Croome, his seat 

 near Upton, eighteen miles from the kennels at 

 Broadway. In 1873 he felt that the distance 

 was too great to enable him to do justice to the 

 work of master, and to the regret of all, decided 

 to resign office. He was succeeded in 1873 by 

 Mr. Algernon Rushout, who had his own pack 

 of hounds and hunted them himself. During 

 his mastership good sport was the rule, and 

 before Mr. Rushout resigned he could point in 

 his kennels to twenty-five masks of foxes which 

 his hounds had killed after runs of twenty miles 

 or more. A twenty-five mile run from Porter's 

 Plantation by Stump Cross and Stanway to 

 Pexford, in 2 hrs. 10 min. deserves special 

 mention. When Mr. Rushout took the country, 

 he received a subscription, and the North Cottes- 

 wold has been maintained as a subscription pack 

 ever since. The country, partly vale and partly 

 hill, presents peculiar difficulties in the matter of 

 stopping by reason of the rocks on the hills. In 

 1874 Mr. Rushout employed fifty earth-stoppers, 

 and sometimes thirty of these were at work before 

 a hunting day. The vale country, which is 

 very strongly fenced, extends north from the 

 hills and north-east of Winchcombe as far as 

 Long Marston. Walls are the only fences in 

 the hill districts. Lord Coventry considered the 

 country a famous one in which to ' make' a pack 

 of hounds, as the hill-sides carry a good scent and 

 the rough nature of the ground precludes the 

 possibility of interfering with them. On Mr. 

 Rushout's retirement in 1876, Captain Cyril 

 Stacey became master, purchasing the hounds 

 from his predecessor. Captain Stacey carried 

 the horn himself, hunting the country two days 



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