NOTITIA VENATICA. 45 



ever known, either in his own time or any previous to it ; he was an 

 excellent noighhoiir, and a staunch and sincere friend. That stamp of 

 fine old English squires will soon be rooted from the soil ; and though 

 nearly eradicated, Ave occasionally see recorded the death of some aged 

 remnant of the old school. The worthy baronet, of whom the following 

 is a short memoir, Avas another sample of the good old times of which we 

 have been speaking. He was an intimate friend of Mr. Warde's, and, 

 at the time he hunted Warwickshire, a constant attendant on his pack 

 in the hunting field. 



Died, on the Gth of August, 1841, at Ryde, whither he had retired 

 for the benefit of his heath, in the 8oth year of his age, Sir Thoophilus 

 Biddulph, Bart., of Birdingbury Hall, Warwickshire. 



The demise of the worthy baronet has taken from society one of the 

 finest specimens of the old sportsman and country gentleman that has 

 been known for many years ; he Avas a magistrate for the county of 

 WarAA'ick, and one of the trustees of Rugby School. Trained from his 

 earliest infancy to the sports of the field, Sir Theoi)hilus shone in after- 

 life as a proficient in almost every description of sporting lore. Al- 

 though at no time a master of foxhounds himself, he Avas a strict pre- 

 server of foxes, and a constant attendant at the cover side, and no one 

 better understood the Avhole arcana of the chase. He was moreover a 

 good hand at hare-hunting, and no pack of harriers stood in higher 

 estimation than his OAvn, which he hunted himself for a very long jjeriod, 

 even until his 75th year. He Avas a contemporary and intimate friend 

 of the celebrated John Warde, of Squerries; and a rich treat it was for 

 all lovers of fun and fox-hunting to meet these tAvo jolly old Nimrods 

 together over the mahogany. Sir Theophilus rode a horse many sea- 

 sons, A\diich he bought of Mr. Warde, and Avliich Avas called " Pattens," 

 from his extraordinary manner of going. At every description of trap, 

 net, or other engine for the taking of all kinds of animals, birds, or 

 fish, he Avas unequalled ; and Avas one of the few remaining sportsmen 

 Avho kept up the old system of taking partridges by means of the 

 setting dog and net ; his best setters were procured from Stafi'ordshire. 

 He Avas a great preserver of pheasants as Avell as foxes, and Avas the 

 original inventor of the artificial pheasant, which is placed in trees to 

 deceive the poachers Avhen shooting them by moonlight. Sir Theo- 

 philus Avas also the inventor of a humane man-trap for catching 

 poachers and garden thieves, by means of a chain, Avithout injuring 

 their limbs. 



He was a huntsman, a shot, a fisherman both in fresh and sea-water, 

 an otter-hunter, a bird-catcher, and a taker of wildfoAvl by means of a 

 regular decoy ; he also made and repaired all his OAvn nets ; he was an 

 excellent mechanic, and a first-rate turner in Avood, metal, and ivory. 



Sir Theophilus Biddulph has gone doAvn to the grave sincerely re- 

 gretted by all classes of society, excepting the poachers, of Avhom he 

 had been the terror for many a year. In his person he Avas remarkably 

 handsome, and although ahvays, even in early life, a heavy man, liis 

 Aveight considerably increased Avith his years, and at the time of his 

 death he Aveighed nearly tAventy stone. 



