't/^/- 



CHAPTER II. 



The Origin and Early History of the Hunt. 



' A pack of such hounds, and a set of such men, 

 ' 'Tis a shrewd chance if ever you meet with again; 

 ' Had Nimrod, the mighti'st of hunters, been there, 

 ' Foregad ! he had shook like an aspen for fear.' — 



Killrnddei-y Fox Chase. 



The origin of fox-hunting is one of those things over 

 which men may speculate, but about which httle will ever 

 be known. No doubt in the olden time a fox was looked 

 upon as vermin, and men went out to hunt him with nets 

 and other things which are enough to turn the hair of a 

 modern sportsman grey with horror. Sporting as were the 

 people of the country, hare-hunting and stag-hunting were 

 their favourite sports, and it was not till within the last two 

 hundred, or at most two hundred and fifty years, that fox- 

 hunting was carried on as a country gentleman's sport. 

 The Sinnington claims to be the oldest-established Hunt in 

 the kingdom, and boasts of a continuous history since the 

 time when the Duke of Buckingham retired from the Court 

 to spend his time in hunting on his Kirbymoorside and 

 Helmsley estates. But it is fair to presume that what the 

 Duke of Buckingham was doing in Ryedale, other gentlemen 

 were doing in other parts of the country, and that about 



