30 HISTORY OF THE YORK AND AINSTY HUNT. 



up his hounds, and the Goldsborough country was 

 unhunted for a short time. Then we have the authority 

 of ' Nimrod ' for saying- that the Hon. Captain Butler 

 kept hounds for a season or two at Nun Monlcton, and he 

 is stated by that great authority to have originated the 

 pack. In this, however, 'Nimrod' was scarcely correct, 

 though Captain Butler's keeping hounds may have had 

 something to do with the formation of the present York 

 and Ainsly country, and although he undoubtedly played a 

 leading part in the formation of the country as it now 

 exists. 



No doubt that the fact of Sir Thomas Slingsby giving 

 up his hounds had aroused the keen sportsmen of the 

 York district that they were in some danger of losing 

 some of their hunting, and at the same time the improved 

 state of agriculture, the increase of enclosures, and the 

 systematic preservation of foxes, which was coming fast 

 into vogue, rendered it necessary that there should be some 

 clearer definition of hunting countries, and that the vast 

 areas which have been hunted over by the Duke of 

 Cleveland and Sir Mark Masterman Sykes should be 

 curtailed in extent. Everything, indeed, pointed for the 

 time being opportune for the establishment of a hunt 

 which, ever since its formation, has taken a foremost place 

 in the annals of the sport, and which has indeed a 

 brilliant, if also a somewhat tragic history. 



So, the time being ripe in 1816 a deputation from 

 York waited upon Mr. James Lane Fox, of Bramham, 

 and requested him to allow the proposed new pack to hunt 

 that part of the country which had hitherto been hunted 

 by the Bramham Moor, which lay to the south of the city. 

 Mr. Fox, who had plenty of country, assented, on the 

 condition that whenever the York and Ainsty Hunt should 

 be given up, this part of their country should revert to the 



