316 The Hunting Countries of England. 



THE SINNINGTOX.* 



A GOOD country, and an old one, with a trenclier-fed 

 pack — is an anomaly, or at all events a curiosity, to be 

 found scarcely anywhere else in this year of 1883. 

 Yet such is The Sinnington. Its antiquity as a country 

 is shown by the fact that the Duke of Buckingham 

 hunted in it as long ago as 1668. The lines of a local 

 -and primitive poet of that time are still sung in the 

 Hunt — the first verse of his song running as follows : 



'Twas early one morniug as I rode in tlie dawuiug 

 I lieard of some famous fine liuuting 

 Betwixt some gentlemen and the Duke of Buckingham, 

 So early as they rode a hunting. 



About 1690 the Duncombe family bought the 

 Helmsley Castle and estate from the Duke's executors. 

 The present Lord Feversham, following the example 

 of his ancestors, is now the chief supporter of the 

 Hunt ; of which the late Lord Helmsley — whose early 

 death was a grief from Yorkshire to Leicestershire, 

 and wherever men knew him — would no doubt have 

 sooner or later become Master. 



The Sinnington Hunt is still constituted as a club ; 

 and by yearly custom makes its vitality patent in the 



* Vide Stanford's "Hunting Map," Sheet 5, and Hobson's 

 Foxlumtino- Atlas. 



