SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



a week. He resigned in 1901, giving place to 

 Mr. Charles McNeill, who in his turn purchased 

 the hounds. Sport under McNeill, who, like 

 his predecessors, was his own huntsman, was 

 remarkably good. This was due in no small 

 measure to Mr. McNeill's ability as a breeder 

 of hounds. He sold the dog-hounds he had 

 purchased from Captain Stacey, and purchased 

 twenty-five couples of bitches from the Quorn, 

 Mr. Fernie's, Pytchley, Badminton, and Ather- 

 stone kennels ; and during his six years of office 

 he brought the pack to such a pitch of per- 

 fection that, on his retirement in 1906 he sold 

 it with the entry for upwards of 3,600. 

 The country acquired an enhanced reputation, 

 and during the latter years of Mr. McNeill's 

 mastership, Broadway, the most convenient 

 hunting centre, became the resort of numerous 

 visitors in the season. The pack hunts two days 

 a week regularly, and on an occasional by-day. 

 Sport in this country is carried on under very 

 favourable conditions. The farmers are warm 

 supporters of hunting, foxes are well preserved 

 and plentiful, and what wire exists is always re- 

 moved before the opening of the hunting season. 

 Among the more noteworthy followers of the 

 hunt in modern days, Mr. E. Hawkes of Talton 

 may be mentioned. This gentleman, when on 

 his death-bed, sent for Mr. Rushout, and wrote 

 a cheque for his annual subscription, saying that 

 he could die happily when he had discharged this 

 obligation. He died two hours afterwards. 

 Other well-known characters with the hounds 

 were a yeoman of Broadway named Careless, 

 who used to hunt six days a week on foot, with 

 Mr. Rushout and the Heythrop ; and the Evesham 

 sweep, who on occasion, would use his brush to 

 bolt a fox if required. 



THE VALE OF WHITE HORSE 

 (CIRENCESTER) 



The Vale of White Horse country owes its 

 name to the ' White Horse ' which adorns a locality 

 long since separated from V. W. H. territory. 

 The V. W. H. country, or a very large propor- 

 tion of it, was originally hunted by Mr. Naper, who 

 gave up his pack somewhere about the end of 

 the eighteenth century and placed his country 

 at the disposal of the landowners, who asked Mr. 

 John Loder, then master of the Old Berkshire, 

 to hunt it. 1 From this time forward until 1832 

 it formed part of the Old Berkshire territory, 

 and as such was hunted by the masters of the 

 latter from about the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. The first master concerning whom 

 records have anything definite to tell was Mr. 



1 F. C. Loder Symons and E. Percy Crowdy, 

 Hiitory of the OU Berki Hunt, 1760-1904. 



Codrington of Codrington, member of a very 

 old Gloucestershire family. Mr. Codrington 

 took office in 1813 and remained until 1824; 

 he docs not appear to have been a very active 

 man in the field, no doubt owing to his weight, 

 and preferred gaps to fences. He lived at New 

 House in Berkshire with Mr. Wyndham, a 

 bachelor like himself, each having a distinct 

 establishment. Mr. Codrington was succeeded 

 by Mr. Harvey Combe, a member of the well- 

 known firm of brewers. The country hunted by 

 Mr. Combe from 1824 to 1826 extended from 

 Cirencester to Scratch Wood, then 7 miles from 

 London. To hunt this great area, 80 miles 

 long, Mr. Combe purchased Sir J. Astley's pack 

 from Norfolk. ' Nimrod ' records a very fast 

 run which took place in February, 1825, on the 

 Gloucestershire side of the country. Hounds 

 found at Williamstrip, and got their fox away 

 toward Bradwell Grove ; then turning to the 

 left and leaving the Grove on the right, they 

 ran across the Bibury race-course near the grand 

 stand, as it was in 1825, and past Aldsworth on 

 the left. Then they crossed the Cheltenham- 

 Oxford road, near Sherborne Park gates, and 

 heading east, killed their fox about a mile from 

 Farmington Grove, which was evidently his 

 point. Ten miles in forty-seven minutes, of 

 which seven were lost at a check. It was 

 said of Mr. Combe that he covered a 

 greater mileage of road going to meets and 

 returning home than any man in England ; 

 but before long he found it too much even for 

 his energies, and in 1826 returned to the Old 

 Berkeley. 



Lord Kintore, who succeeded Mr. Combe in 

 1826, brought his own pack of hounds from 

 Keith Hall, Aberdeenshire, to Wadley House. 

 His establishment of second kennels at Cricklade 

 for convenience of hunting the western side of 

 the country may be regarded as the first step 

 towards the creation of the V. W. H. as a dis- 

 tinct hunt. The necessity for such division was 

 obvious : a letter * written by the master in the 

 season of 1829 shows that different parts of the 

 country were hunted at different times ; Lord 

 Kintore in the letter referred to informs his 

 correspondent that ' the hounds will hunt the 

 east country in the autumn.' Lord Kintore was 

 famed for the boldness of his horsemanship : in 

 a ten-mile run from Crab Tree near Higleworth 

 to Uffington he jumped the River Cole, a thing 

 which has never been done since. He paid 

 large sums for his horses : for one, named White- 

 stocking, a wonderful jumper, he is said to have 

 given 800. It may be noted that he always 

 referred to the country as The Vale.' ' The 

 Hon. H. Moreton (afterwards carl of Ducie) 

 followed Lord Kintore in the mastership in 



' F. C. Lodcr Symonds and E. Percy Crowdy, A 

 Hiitary of the Old Berks Hunt, 1760-1904. 

 1 Ibid. 



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