SOME YORKSHIRE HUNTING NOTES 211 



Whitworth at Scorborough Hall, seeing a fine col- 

 lection of sporting trophies and cups, in addition 

 to the treasures of the stables and kennels. The 

 old hall is a quaint, one-storied house in a garden 

 characteristic of the last century, and makes a 

 connecting link with the past history of the hunt ; 

 originally being the residence of Mr James Hall, 

 who held the mastership of the Holderness from 

 1847 to 1877. That was a period of good sport, and 

 the country regained its former prestige ; a pack of 

 hounds being bred, good as any man could wish 

 for, either on the flags or in the field. Mr Hall was 

 a welter-weight, but not to be beaten across country, 

 and few masters had such horse flesh under them. 

 When his stud of forty-six hunters was dispersed 

 by Messrs Tattersall, they averaged £140 apiece 

 all round, the top price being £700 for Leotard, a 

 brflliant performer ridden by Miss Frances Hall. 

 At the latter end of Mr Hall's mastership, two 

 hard-riding clerics were followers of the Holderness 

 hunt ; the Rev. Cecil Legard, son of a former master 

 Mr Digby Legard ; and the Rev. J. P. Seabrooke 

 who afterwards migrated to Leicestershire, and is 

 now Vicar of Waltham, in the gift of the Duke of 

 Rutland. The Revd. Cecil Legard married Miss 

 Hall, daughter of the master. 



The Holderness hunt dates from 1726, and the 

 country, as at present constituted, has existed since 

 1765, when Mr William Bethell of the Low HaU, 

 Bishop Burton, held the mastership from 1765 to 

 1794. His successor was Sir Mark Sykes with Mr 

 Richard Watt of Bishop Burton by Beverley, who 

 will always be remembered as the owner of the 

 famous Blacklock that ran second to Ebor in the 

 St Leger of 18 17 — beaten by a head. The skeleton 

 of Blacklock, ^Irs Hall Watt has had recently set up 



