SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Court, Col. Buckle, Mr. Butler of Down Amp- 

 ney, who was killed jumping a wall, Mr. Fox of 

 Braddyl (Bradwell) Grove, Col. Dallas Yorke 

 and his daughter (now Duchess of Portland), 

 Mr. J. Adamthwaitc, the Bowleys of Siddington, 

 and Mr. and Mrs. Egginton, afterwards known 

 as Erie Drax. Mrs. Egginton, for sixteen years, 

 was one of the boldest riders with the V. W. H. 



A sad event in the history of the hunt was 

 the death of Major Whyte-Melville on 5 De- 

 cember, 1878, when hunting with the V.W. H. 

 not far from Tetbury, where he had lived many 

 years. He was galloping across a ploughed field, 

 and his horse caught his fore-legs in a shallow 

 drain, like a ' grip,' that had been just cut. The 

 Major was thrown on his head and broke his neck. 



HARRIERS 



The earliest pack of which record remains was 

 one kept by Mr. W. L. Barnard at Whitfield, 

 near Apperlcy. Mr. Barnard achieved great 

 popularity in the country, as would appear from 

 the fact that in 1842 he was presented at Glou- 

 cester Shire Hall with a portrait of himself on 

 a favourite hunter. The hide of this horse was 

 eventually cut up into whip-thongs, some of 

 which still exist. In 1849 the country round 

 Cheltenham was hunted by the ' Cottiswold or 

 Brockworth ' Harriers, 1 Mr. S. Harman, a Cub- 

 berley farmer, being the first master. A pack 

 called the Norton Harriers also existed about 

 the same time, in the Cheltenham district. Mr. 

 William Hawkins of the Hawthorns, Corse 

 Lawn, maintained a pack of harriers for many 

 years during the earlier half of the nineteenth 

 century. He sold his pack to Mr. Parkes, who 

 afterwards fought a duel on Kempsey Common 

 with Mr. Russell of Powick, in consequence of 

 a dispute in the hunting-field. Mr. Hawkins, who 

 employed a woman as his kennel huntsman, was 

 a most hospitable man ; he kept open house 

 during the hunting season, with a table always 

 standing in the hall. He died in 1860. Mr. 

 Foley Onslow kept a pack at Newent for some 

 years, in the fifties and early sixties ; and 

 about the same time, Mr. Crump of Walton 

 Hill, near Coombe Hill, had a pack of harriers. 

 The Cotteswold Harriers were owned by Mr. 

 Hudson of Tocknalls, Painswick, in the early 

 seventies. Mr. Hudson was subsequently joined 

 by Sir Francis Ford and Mr. E. Potter, and the 

 Cotteswold for several years hunted part of what 

 is now the Boddington Harriers' country. They 

 came to an end in 1882, and in the following 



year Mr. T. S. Gibbons, who had purchased 

 Boddington Manor, near Cheltenham, began to 

 hunt the old Cotteswold country and some new 

 territory with the pack he had bought from 

 Mr. C. Morrell (the Berkshire Vale Harriers). 

 For a time Mr. Gibbons hunted two days a 

 week ; subsequently increasing the size of the 

 pack, he hunted three days a week, and so con- 

 tinued for nine seasons, after which he dropped 

 the extra day. The country hunted lies in 

 the Vale of Severn. The Longford Harriers 

 were established about the year 1840, by the 

 Rev. W. Taylor, curate of Maisemore. Dur- 

 ing the sixty-four years of its existence the 

 affairs of the hunt were managed by a com- 

 mittee of farmers. The kennels were at 

 Longford, some two miles and a half from 

 Gloucester, and the pack hunted twice a 

 week the country in the neighbourhood of the 

 county town ; also meeting by invitation in 

 various parts of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, 

 and Herefordshire. The following gentlemen 

 held office after Mr. Taylor's resignation : Mr. 

 F. Sevier of Maisemore assisted by Mr. Morris 

 of Maisemore Court ; Mr. J. H. Friday of 

 Brockworth (Mr. John Sivell, deputy master) ; 

 Messrs. Harvey Melville, the Hon. T. L. Bamp- 

 fylde, L. Fane Gladwin ; J. Gratwicke Blagrave 

 and Oswald E. Part, as joint masters, and finally, 

 Mr. Frank Green, whose resignation in 1904, 

 after two seasons in office, was followed by the 

 abandonment of the hunt. Mr. Gratwicke 

 Blagrave, who held the mastership alone from 

 1899 to 1901, and with Mr. Part for another 

 year, is remembered as an exceptionally success- 

 ful and popular master. 



COURSING 



The principal public meetings held in the 

 county before the passing of the Ground Game 

 Act were those of Cirencester, Berkeley and Kings- 

 cote, the ground of each being well adapted for 

 the sport. Cirencester was held over the stone- 

 wall district of the Cotteswold Hills where much 

 of the land is arable, and the hares were always 



1 Gelert, Guide to the foxhounds of England. 



remarkable for their strong running, affording 

 excellent tests of the staying qualities of the grey- 

 hounds. A Cirencester club existed for some 

 years in the 'sixties, and a two days' meeting was 

 held each season under the patronage, and over 

 the estates, of Mr. T. W. C. Master, about a 

 mile from the town of Cirencester. Mr. E. 

 Trinder was secretary to the club, and amongst 

 the owners of greyhounds was the late Lord 



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