EARLY HUNTINC4 EXPERIENCES. 19 



arrived at man's estate he became the Master of 

 a pack of harriers. He soon, however, made fox- 

 hunting his chief object, and set to work to revive 

 the glories of the old Cranborne Chase Hunt. The 

 country over which Beckford hunted adjoined the 

 Blackmore Vale Hunt territory, on the northern 

 side of its boundaries. 



The Purbeck was yet another old hunt, whose 

 country, as well as that of the Cranborne Chase, 

 belonged in part to Dorset. The former was under 

 the mastership of Sir Granby Calcraft, who kept 

 a pack of hounds at Rempstone in the early years 

 of the last century, and at the close of the preced- 

 ing one. 



In 1806 Mr Farquharson, after passing through 

 Eton and Oxford, became a Master of Hounds as 

 soon as he had attained his majority. He bought a 

 })ack from Mr Wyndham of Dinton, and with Peter 

 Beckford and " Billy " Butler as his guides, he 

 determined to hunt the hounds himself In spite 

 of the young Master's enthusiasm, however, he 

 found his experience was not yet equal to the task, 

 so he resigned the horn to Ben Jennings, who came 

 from Essex to be his huntsman. 



At his home at Langton, which was situated in 

 a beautiful park on the banks of the river Stour, 

 Mr Farquharson built stables which were said to 

 be the finest in the south of England. They were 

 built of bath -stone, in oval form, were fitted with 

 oak stalls for thirty-four horses, and had a covered 

 ride round them. At Eastbury, a village a little 



