BLANKNEY REMINISCENCES 97 



still a quantity to reckon with, when a knotty 

 argument has to be settled or a fence jumped. 

 On a certain day in January J907 when the Blankney 

 hounds met at Coleby Hall, near 

 Lincoln, the field included quite 

 a gathering of those whose names 

 are connecting-links in the history 

 of the hunt, and for that reason 

 was most interesting. The meet 

 was at the residence of Major ^^-.^ 

 Arthur Tempest, late of the ;^^ 

 nth Hussars, who succeeded Mr. "' 

 Chaplin in the mastership, holding 

 it from 1881 to 1895, a brilHant 

 period of sport in the latter part of which Ben 

 Capell came on the scene as huntsman. Major 

 Tempest's fame for horsemanship will go down to 

 posterity, riding as he did on four occasions in the 

 Grand National Steeplechase, twice being second, 

 the best performance being the Colonel's year, 1870. 

 Both the reigning masters were out, Mr. Edgar 

 Lubbock, who succeeded Mr. N. C. Cockburn in 

 1904, being joined in 1907 by Lord Charles 

 Bentinck, who undertook the duties of huntsman 

 and master until the spring of 1909. The youthful 

 Lord RaincUffe was riding a pony, and represented 

 his father, the Earl of Londesborough, who held two 

 years' joint-mastership with Mr. "Natty" Cockburn, 

 who served the hunt well for nine seasons, and 

 then went big-game shooting. Noticeable were 

 Lady Castlereagh and Miss Florence ChapHn, 

 daughters of the first master to the pack, on 

 a visit to Blankney for a few days' hunting. 

 Amongst others out was Sir Robert Filmer, hunt- 

 ing from Grantham, an officer in the Grenadier 

 Guards, and owner of an estate in Kent, who suc- 



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