SPORT ANCIENT AND 



MODERN 



HUNTING 



H 



UNTING in Sussex might be 

 traced to very early times. 

 Robert, Earl de Moreton, half 

 brother of the Conqueror, who 

 was lord ofPevensey, was an ar- 

 dent sportsman and hunted over the wide country 

 of which he was owner. The early Percys, who 

 lived at Petworth in Plantagenet times, before 

 they migrated to the north, were sportsmen as 

 well as warriors, and many other great families 

 kept hounds, as was the custom of the county 

 magnates of those days. The dukes of Somerset 

 succeeded to the Percys in the Petworth estates, 

 and the sixth, known as ' the proud Duke,' un- 

 doubtedly kept hounds there in the seventeenth 

 century. At Dainley, on the verge of Charlton 

 Forest, behind the present estate of Goodwood, 

 the Fitzalans, earls of Arundel, had a hunting 

 seat. Two of them, indeed, died at Dainley : 

 Earl Thomas in 1525, and Earl William in 

 1544. In 1591 Queen Elizabeth came to visit 

 Anthony Browne, first Viscount Montagu, at 

 Cowdray, where she was entertained with great 

 splendour. On 17 August the queen rode to a 

 bower prepared for her in the park, and there 

 with her crossbow shot three or four deer as 

 they were driven past her. 



It is not until more recent times, after the 

 larger beasts of chase had become exterminated, 

 that we find records of hunting in the modern 

 sense. The earliest reference to fox-hunting 

 occurs in the time of Charles II. Sir William 

 Thomas, of Folkington, member for the county, 

 writes to his friend Sir William Wilson of 

 Bourne Place (now Compton Place, Eastbourne) 

 as follows : 



Sir, 



I designe to hunt the fox at Bourne tomorrow ; 

 but if there be not people to watch the cliffs, and to 

 be there about three o'clock in the morninge to 

 prevent their going downe I can doe no good with 

 them. I desire, therefore, that you would be pleased 

 to order some persons to watch the cliffs and to stop 

 the earths that are nere you. I will be there, God 

 willing, by 6 o'clock in the morninge, when I should 

 be glad to have the happiness of your good company. 

 This comes from, Sir, your faithfull friende and 

 humble servant, 



WILLIAM THOMAS. 



FOX HUNTING 

 THE CHARLTON HUNT 



Charlton, which was a very fashionable hunting 

 centre in the eighteenth century, seems to have 

 become famous soon after this period. The 

 Duke of Monmouth was extremely fond of this 

 place, and in his earlier days spent much of his 

 time there. He said jestingly that ' when he 

 was King, he would come and keep his Court 

 there.' In the days of its pride, 1720-40, every 

 house in the neighbourhood was full, and even 

 the cottages were filled with lodgers. 



It is said that Monmouth owed his knowledge 

 of the place to his friend, Ford, Lord Grey of 

 Wark, who was afterwards to become his evil 

 genius and to command his cavalry on the field 

 of Sedgemoor. Grey had a seat at Up Park in 

 that neighbourhood. Two packs of hounds 

 were kept at Charlton at this period, one be- 

 longing to Monmouth, the other to Lord Grey. 

 The field-master or ' manager ' of both packs 

 was Mr. Roper, a Kentish gentleman, who was 

 credited with a most intimate knowledge of 

 hounds and hunting. During Monmouth's re- 

 bellion, in 1685, Roper felt it necessary for his 

 safety to quit Sussex and take refuge in France. 

 When William III became king, he returned 

 to England and resumed the management of the 

 hounds, which had then become the property of 

 the Duke of Bolton. At this time the Marquis 

 of Hartington, afterwards Duke of Devonshire, 

 was a familiar figure with the Charlton Hunt. 

 A daring exploit of his was to ride down Seven 

 Down, one of the steepest descents in the 

 county, and leap a five-barred gate at the foot. 

 At this period there were hunting at Charlton 

 the Dukes of Bolton, Grafton, and Montrose, 

 the Earl of Halifax, Lord Nassau Powlett, Lords 

 William and Henry Beauclerk, Lords Forester, 

 Hervey and Harcourt, General Compton and 

 others. The Earl of Burlington, ' the Vitru- 

 vius of his day,' built a banqueting chamber, 

 which was called Foxhall, after a gilt figure of 

 a fox which surmounted a tall flagstaff in front 

 of the building. This was the gift of Henrietta, 

 Duchess of Bolton. 



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