THE MASTERS. 9 



by Nollekyns (who died before her husband was raised to 

 the peerage). 



" Lord Yarborough has a pack of hounds. If he has 

 a fall, I hope it will be into a furze bush. He is too good 

 to hurt much." That is what Arthur Young wrote a 

 century ago. He also makes mention of the vast tracts 

 of gorse in the Brocklesby domains. We can realize how 

 great a change has come over the face of the country 

 when it is remembered that when Will Smith took the 

 Brocklesby horn from his father in 1816, there were only 

 two fences between Horncastle and Brigg.* 



In the palmy days of agriculture there w^ere no such 

 tenants and no such farms as in North Lincolnshire. 

 What other Hunt could put from sixty to seventy scaiiet- 



* A foot-note in " Notititia Venatica," that valuable and interesting book by I\Ir. 

 Vyner, says that " The Yarborough or Brocklesby Hounds (taking their title from 

 the name of the seat of the I'elham family) were established considerably upwards 

 of one hundred and fifty years ago ; and it was under the auspices of the first Lord 

 Yarborough that the character of the pack rose to the liigh pinnacle of fame to 

 which it has so justly attained, his lordship being, at the time of his decease, 'the 

 father of the field.' This nobleman was also a rival, although a friendly one, of 

 the celebrated Mr. Meynell, of Quoradon. One of the not least remarkable features 

 connected with these hounds is, that the office of huntsman has descended through 

 the same family of Smiths for four, if not five, generations. The late huntsman to 

 these hounds succeeded his father, who had filled the office before liira tor about 

 twenty-five years, being killed by a fall in hunting, which fractured his spine, 

 whilst leaping a ditch in the parish of Barnoldby-le-Beck, near Grimsby." " Noti- 

 titia Venatica " was published iu 1849, so this foot-note must have been added at a 

 later date, as the first Will Smith died from the effects of his fall in 184.5, and the 

 second Will Smith above referred to was huntsman from 1845 to 185G, and from 

 18G3 to 1864. 



Doctor Vyner, a member of the great sporting family, was an intimate friend 

 of the first Lord Yarborough, and spent the hunting season at Brocklesby for many 

 years. Mr. Robert Vyner refers to him in " Notititia Venatica." " He was a pre- 

 bendary of Canterbury," says Mr. Vyner, " and also held two livings in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Brocklesby Hunt, Withem and Authorpe, beside that of East 

 Peckham, in Kent. He was also an intimate friend of the celebrated Sir. Meynell, 

 with whom he occasionally hunted. Doctor Vyner was not only considered a first- 

 rate judge of breeding hounds and everything connected with tlieir work, both in 

 the kennel and the field, but one of the most elegant and accomplished horsemen 

 that ever steered a hunter across country, which was the more remarkable at that 

 period, when every young man could not ride to hounds a hit, as most of them can at 

 the present day. Amongst many good nags to be found in the doctor's stable, was 

 a magnificent roan horse, which was a present from Lord Yarborough, and which 

 had been given up by himself, his huntsman and his whips, as a dreadful and 

 incurable puller; but the light hand of this resolute and sporting divine was a 

 match for this Bucephalus, and he rode him gallantly for several seasons, by the 

 aid of merely a plain snaffle bit. Doctor Vyner died in November, 1804." 



