A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



quarry ; he would never allow a fox to be dug 

 out, and more than once spared a much-pressed 

 fox, when hounds would otherwise have caught 

 and killed it. 



The fourth Duke of Richmond, on becoming 

 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1814, presented 

 his hounds to the Prince Regent. Rabies soon 

 after appeared in the kennel, and the pack had 

 to be destroyed. For many years thereafter no 

 hounds were kept at Goodwood ; but in 1883 

 the late Lord Leconfield having relinquished a 

 large portion of the Goodwood country, which 

 he had long hunted, the late Duke of Richmond 

 and Gordon revived the Goodwood Hunt. The 

 nucleus of the new pack was formed from the 

 then Lord Radnor's pack and from drafts from 

 Lord Zetland's and the Belvoir. The Belvoir 

 draft was secured for a year or two, after which 

 time all the hounds were bred at the Goodwood 

 kennels. At this time practically new kennels 

 were built, and the whole establishment was 

 modelled on a liberal scale. The old Charlton 

 livery of blue coats with buff waistcoats was 

 revived, and the hunt servants were clad in the 

 yellow coats with red collars and cuffs of the 

 famous old hunt. First-rate sport was shown 

 by the new Goodwood hounds during twelve 

 seasons, until the pack was once more given up 

 in 1895. George Champion, for many years 

 with the South Down, was the first huntsman to 

 the pack. At first the Goodwood hunted three 

 days a week. This was subsequently increased 

 to four days a week, and at this time about fifty 

 couple of hounds were maintained. The pre- 

 sent Duke of Richmond and Gordon, then Earl 

 of March, acted as master, and was extremely 

 popular in all parts of the country hunted. 



THE PETWORTH HOUNDS 



The pack of hounds now maintained by the 

 third Lord Leconfield at Petworth has one of 

 the most ancient pedigrees of any in England, 

 dating back as it does to the days of the ' proud 

 Duke of Somerset,' who kept hounds there in 

 the time of William III. The present Lord 

 Leconfield, a descendant of this Duke of Somer- 

 set, expresses the opinion that there has been no 

 actual break in the history of the Petworth 

 Hounds since that date. Lord Leconfield has, 

 indeed, a hunting ancestry on both sides. Sir 

 William Wyndham, who married the daughter 

 and heiress of the Duke of Somerset, and thus 

 became progenitor of the Earls of Egremont and 

 Lords Leconfield of the eighteenth and nineteenth 

 centuries, was himself a great sportsman as well 

 as a notable politician. He became Master of 

 the Buckhounds, under Queen Anne, in 1710. 

 The third Earl of Egremont (Sir George O'Brien 

 Wyndham) (1751-1837), was one of the greatest 

 sportsmen of his day. He owned many Derby 

 and Oaks winners, and kept hounds at Petworth 



for forty or fifty years. He improved his hounds 

 by purchasing the pack of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 

 in 1773. These hounds showed very fine sport 

 over a large extent of the Weald country. Lord 

 Gage, Lord Robert Spencer, Mr. Poyntz, 

 Mr. Bigg Withers, and many other notabilities 

 of the time, including Mrs. Dorrien (formerly 

 Miss Le Clerc), a famous lady rider, who it is 

 said never refused a fence in her life, hunted 

 with the Petworth Hounds. Lord Egremont 

 had a celebrated huntsman, Luke Freeman, a 

 Yorkshireman, who served him for many years. 

 About the year 1800 he reduced his hunting 

 establishment, and gave a portion of his pack to 

 the Duke of Richmond, who was to choose 

 whatever hounds he wanted. 



A writer in the Sporting Magazine of October, 

 1821, gives the following account of what 

 happened on this occasion : 



The pack was sent to the seat of the Noble Duke, 

 at Goodwood, where Freeman attended by the 

 special invitation of His Grace. The dogs were 

 hunted and examined, but the Duke could not decide 

 the question which were the best. Perhaps Luke 

 was not very communicative on the subject, and 

 preferred leaving matters in abler hands. It was in 

 vain that he went to bed comfortable every night : he 

 knew but little of the merits of the dogs in the 

 morning. The old huntsman continued at Good- 

 wood for a fortnight, at the expiration of which time 

 the Duke said to him : ' Well, Mr. Freeman, I have 

 tried the hounds, and you may select the youngest 

 and the best of them and leave me the rest.' This 

 was just what the old boy wanted ; so he lost no 

 time in making the necessary selection and prepared 

 to leave Goodwood. Meanwhile the Duke had 

 ridden round to the park gate, through which 

 Freeman was to pass, and meeting him as he ap- 

 proached towards it, observed ' So, Mr. Freeman, 

 you have got all the youngest and the best dogs ? ' 

 'Yes, please your Grace, all the youngest and the 

 best.' ' Then you'll just be good enough ' rejoined 

 the Duke, ' to conduct them back to my kennel, and 

 you can take the remainder.' Luke felt that he was 

 done, but good-humouredly turned about. 



The old huntsman had charge of the remain- 

 der at Petworth, and kept them going until a 

 young kinsman of the earl, afterwards Colonel 

 George Wyndham, was of an age to hunt the 

 pack himself. In 1817 the hounds were still 

 called Lord Egremont's, but from 1819, after 

 Colonel George Wyndham had assumed the 

 management, the pack was known as his. 

 ' Nimrod,' in one of his celebrated sporting 

 tours, paid a visit to Sussex in January, 1824, 

 and speaks in very high terms of Colonel 

 Wyndham and his hounds. He thus describes 

 a day with them from the meet at Newtimber 

 House, six miles from Brighton, on the London 

 Road : 



Colonel Wyndham's fixture was for eleven ; and 

 about twenty minutes before our grandfather's dinner 

 hour, the hounds arrived, and by the time they were 

 in their second bottle, we found our fox. They 



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