SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



came up at a brisk trot, and appeared by the horses 

 as if they had not let the grass grow under their feet, 

 in their road from the kennel the distance from 

 which was about nine miles. They retired into a 

 small field by the side of the road, whilst Colonel 

 Wyndham changed his horse and then proceeded to 

 draw. The Colonel was mounted on a very clever 

 Octavius mare, and his two whippers-in rode two 

 thoroughbred ones. In short, if I may be allowed 

 the expression, all looked well bred together. There was 

 one of the largest fields ever known in Sussex, upwards 

 of two hundred horsemen being present. 



From the great reputation this pack of hounds has 

 acquired from the pace they carry a scent over a 

 light country, and the great pains they have taken in 

 breeding them I was very anxious to have a sight of 

 them. On this day, however, I had little time to 

 look them over, but I saw they were formed for 

 sport, not deficient in power, and abounding in good 

 form and symmetry, though not exceeding (generally) 

 twenty-two inches in height. There was one hound 

 which instantly caught my eye as above their standard, 

 and on asking the whipper-in his name he told me it 

 was Conqueror. I afterwards found it was no mis- 

 nomer, for when he had killed his fox, he carried 

 home his head as a trophy, in spite of all attempts to 

 make him drop it. I afterwards saw a brother to him 

 (Caliban), a very fine hound, but I understood not 

 quite so true on his line. 



It has not always been supposed that gentlemen 

 huntsmen are the best. Perhaps it may be on the 

 principle that those are not fit to command who 

 have not been accustomed to obey. Having heard 

 much of Colonel Wyndham's performance, I was 

 anxious to witness it, so followed him, in drawing, 

 through many rough coverts. I was much pleased 

 with the quiet manner of himself and his men, 

 and his hounds were particularly steady and drew 



as if they meant to find When we did 



find, only seven or eight out of this large field got 

 away with the hounds, and from the severity of the 

 pace and the extreme depth of the country some of 

 it approaching to bog catching them was out of the 

 question. They, however, caught their fox at the 

 end of an hour and twenty minutes, just as he had 

 reached an earth and was on the point of creeping up 

 the bank to enter it, when he fell back among the 

 pack and was killed. ... I thought Colonel Wynd- 

 ham rode very well to his hounds, and his cheering 

 halloo to them, in chase, would make an old man's 

 heart feel glad. 



Speaking of the hounds, ' Nimrod ' says : 



' I thought there was a beautiful pack out, and 

 having had an easier week, they looked very bright 

 and well.' 



A brother of Colonel Wyndham, Colonel 

 Henry Wyndham (afterwards General Wynd- 

 ham), was at this time, and for long after, also 

 hunting a pack of foxhounds in the western 

 part of Sussex. Nimrod speaks thus of this 

 remarkable fact : 



I have reason to believe the County of Sussex 

 produces the only instance in the sporting world of 

 two brothers, each keeping a pack of foxhounds, but 

 so it is. 



In 1837 Colonel George Wyndham succeeded 

 Lord Egremont in the Petworth estates. 3 In 

 1839 there seems to have been a dispute 

 between the two brothers, Colonel, and General 

 Wyndham, as to part of the Petworth country, 

 and General Wyndham thereafter gave up his 

 hounds. At one time Lord Leconfield kept his 

 hounds at Drove, near Chichester, but subse- 

 quently moved them again to Petworth, where 

 they have ever since remained. He had kennels 

 also at Findon. During a great part of his long 

 career he maintained hounds from somewhere 

 about 1819 to his death in 1869, during which 

 time he showed some of the finest sport in 

 Sussex Lord Leconfield hunted the Goodwood 

 country together with the Findon country, 

 which is now hunted by the Crawley and 

 Horsham. The second Lord Leconfield con- 

 tinued to hunt a very large area in the Weald 

 and West Sussex, together with the old Good- 

 wood territory and part of the present Chidding- 

 fold and Crawley and Horsham country. In 

 1883, on the re-establishment of the Goodwood 

 Hounds, the hill country was handed over by 

 Lord Leconfield to the Duke of Richmond. 

 Since the abandonment of the Goodwood 

 Hounds in 1895 some part of that region has 

 been unhunted. The present (third) Lord 

 Leconfield still hunts the western half of the 

 Goodwood territory, with the Hambledon to 

 help, the latter taking the southern portion and 

 Lord Leconfield the northern. The Crawley 

 and Horsham now hunt some part of the 

 southern country, near Findon and Worthing, 

 which the first and second Lords Leconfield 

 used to hunt. The River Arun here separates 

 the Leconfield country from the Crawley and 

 Horsham. The Leconfield is still a large coun- 

 try, extending from near Haslemere (Surrey), in 

 the north, to the sea at Bognor. The northern 

 neighbours of this hunt are the Hants and the 

 Chiddingfold ; on the east lies the Crawley and 

 Horsham territory, while the western neighbours 

 of Lord Leconfield are the Hants and the 

 Hambledon. Much of the country hunted is 

 downland, some of it arable, other portions being 

 grass and woodland. There is a fair amount of 

 grass. The vale country is strongly fenced. 

 A famous huntsman of this pack was Charles 

 Shepherd, who was in service from 1862 to 

 1895, and only relinquished the horn in his 

 eightieth year. He was a first-rate huntsman, 

 hard, keen, and with an excellent voice, which 

 was familiar throughout the length and breadth 

 of West Sussex. Shepherd maintained his 

 hunting qualities to the last, and died in 1903 

 at the age of eighty-six. 



Lord Leconfield hunts four days a week and 

 maintains 50 couple of hounds at Petworth 

 Park. His huntsman is John Olding, the 



* In 1859 he was created Lord Leconfield. 



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