A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



being, strange to say, a Newfoundland dog, 

 and some of them were kept at Brayton by 

 Sir Wilfrid Lawson, one of the vicar's 

 brothers. As time went on the strength of 

 the pack increased. There were hounds of 

 good blood among them, notably ' Swimmer ' 

 and 'Stormer' (painted on wood in 1830 by 

 Mr. John Hartley and now in the possession 

 of Mr. Francis Wybergh) ; and ' Guider,' 

 which Mr. Francis Wybergh describes as by 

 far the best hound he ever saw. 'Guider,' like 

 ' Stormer,' was sired by a foxhound. There 

 was'Marjery' too, which later was the mother 

 of nearly the whole of a kennel of sixteen. 

 The pack varied in number ; but ten couples 

 may be taken as its full strength. One of 

 its earliest notable runs was on 1 7 September, 

 1837, when an otter was dragged from 

 Bassenthwaite Beck into the side of Dash 

 waterfall, over a hilltop adjoining Skiddaw, 

 and down the watershed of the river Ellen. 

 It was killed in that river close to the famous 

 hunting and coaching hostelry at Cock 

 Bridge. This run was interesting as proving 

 that otters migrate from one river to another 

 a fact in natural history which has often 

 since been demonstrated on the Scottish bor- 

 der. The Rev. Hilton Wybergh was a very 

 keen sportsman, and his otter hunting country 

 was very extensive. Near home he had that 

 splendid otter river, the Derwent ; also the 

 Cocker and the Ellen. Further away, south of 

 Whitehaven, the Ehen, Irt, Mite, Esk and 

 Duddon ; in Westmorland the Eden, Eamont 

 and Lowther rivers, and Haweswater fur- 

 nished good sport. In Scotland the pack 

 hunted the Tweed, the Annan (best of all), 

 Esk, Leader, Lyne, Kirtle, and JE, ; and he 

 even went to Ireland (in 1857) an ^ hunted 

 the Liffey. No list of fixtures was published 

 in the newspapers ; but the word was passed 

 round among enthusiasts when and where the 

 meets were to take place. For what may be 

 called ' home meets ' a very convenient ar- 

 rangement was adopted. Upon a suitable 

 morning William Stordy, who lived at Isel 

 Vicarage and hunted the pack for twenty-five 

 years, would take a few trusty hounds down 

 to the river at Isel Bridge to ascertain if an 

 otter had been afoot there during the night or 

 early morning. If the ' foil ' could be struck, 

 young Mr. Francis Wybergh would be dis- 

 patched upon his pony to Cockermouth, six 

 miles away, to rouse the local sportsmen, who 

 lost no time in getting to Isel. The largest 

 otter ever killed by these hounds scaled 29 Ib. 

 Some most exciting sport was shown from 

 time to time, and Mr. Francis Wybergh re- 

 lates that upon a certain day of many inci- 

 dents an enthusiast said to him, ' Oh ! Mr. 



Frank, this is far too much for yan man to 

 see ! ' Otters were plentiful in the district, 

 and the Rev. Hilton Wybergh had the unique 

 experience one winter's morning of seeing 

 three of them from his own bed. In spring, 

 from March till about the end of May, 

 foulmarts were hunted. The hounds were 

 kept together until 1857, wnen tne y were 

 disposed of to Mr. Newton of Devonshire, 

 none of the breed remaining in Cumber- 

 land. 



Dr. Hildebrand, a Carlisle medical prac- 

 titioner, had a small pack of his own between 

 1830 and 1840; several hounds were kept 

 in Carlisle about twenty years later by 

 butchers, who joined forces occasionally in 

 the summer months and hunted the Eden 

 and the Lyne; and about 1860 Mr. John 

 Irving, miller, of Maryport, had a small pack. 

 It was not however till 1863, when the 

 Carlisle Otter Hunting Club was established, 

 that otter hunting became a popular sport. 

 The Carlisle pack was composed of ten 

 couples of hounds, with a few terriers, which 

 had before been in private hands in the 

 district. They included Mr. Irving's con- 

 tingent ; and ' Carlisle Thunder,' a celebrated 

 specimen of the breed, was at their head. 

 The owner of this patriarch of the pack was 

 Mr. Robinson Carr, butcher, who was chosen 

 as the first Master ; his deputy being Mr. 

 William Robinson, also a butcher, who contri- 

 buted ' Lame Swimmer,' ' Major ' and ' Rally,' 

 three hounds of the same strain. Both the 

 Master and the Deputy-Master were ex- 

 perienced otter hunters ; and William Sander- 

 son, afterwards celebrated as ' Sandy,' was 

 appointed huntsman. Sandy, who at this 

 time was thirty years of age, was a butcher 

 by trade, but he had been an otter hunter 

 since he was a lad. He had hunted with the 

 Rev. Hilton Wybergh, and had graduated in 

 the sport under Dr. Grant and Mr. Lomax, 

 two keen sportsmen, who hunted on the Scotch 

 side of the Border. Sandy had been a sprint 

 runner in his day, and was endowed with 

 courage, patience and great physical endurance. 

 His knowledge of the habits of the otter 

 amounted almost to instinct ; and he had 

 abiding faith in his well trained hounds. The 

 hunting territory of the new club comprised 

 the Eden and its tributaries within a range of 

 about twenty-five miles ; the Esk, the Annan, 

 and the Nith, with their tributaries on and 

 across the Border ; and at times visits would 

 be paid, on invitation, to Ayrshire, and 

 Roxburghshire, and to the Lune. In one 

 year the north of Ireland was hunted. The 

 success of the Carlisle Otter Hounds was 

 immediate, and in a very few years they had 



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