88 FOX-HUNTING FROM SHIRE TO SHIRE 



several years before he ever thought of becoming a 

 master of hounds — aiming at a level pack, rather 

 than specimen hounds. The five crosses of blood 

 which Mr Wilson bred up to during nine seasons, were 

 Belvoir Weathergage (1876) ; Belvoir Falhble (1874) ; 

 Milton Solomon (1881) ; Grove Harkaway (1885) ; 

 and Croome Rambler (1873). At the end of season 

 1910-11 in the Cheshire kennel there were sixty- 

 live couples out of eighty, having these five crosses 

 in their blood. Croome Rambler (1873) was by Lord 

 Fitzhardinge's Collier (1866), out of Lord Henry 

 Bentinck's Random (1868), by Mr Henry Chaplin's 

 Regulus. Lord Coventry used to say of him, 

 " he was a hard-driving hound, and swept over his 

 fences like a steeplechaser, a more determined 

 hunter I never owned." Many of his descendants 

 are to be found in the best kennels to-day, and the 

 late Lord Willoughby de Broke founded his famous 

 Warwickshire pack, from the produce of two couples 

 of bitches got by Croome Rambler. 



The Cheshire kennels are at Sandiway, by the 

 edge of Delamere Forest, the warm colouring of 

 sandstone and red brick being in pleasing contrast 

 with the dark background of fir and silver birch, 

 with a carpet of withered bracken. Up the sandy 

 lane stands the huntsman's house, a comfortable 

 residence, where we found Fred Champion, hunts- 

 man to the Cheshire for eight seasons, and a worthy 

 son of old Bridger Champion, the famous huntsman 

 to Lord Zetland's hounds. Although suffering from 

 broken ribs, the result of being jumped on when 

 down. Champion was soon inside a kennel coat to 

 show us round. The strength of the kennel was 

 eighty couples, and in an open season it requires 

 some management at the finish to put fifteen couples 

 of hounds in the field each day. On the occasion 



