36 HISTOHY OF THE BRAMHAM MOOR HVST. 



Harewood, and with them went ten servants' horses, saddles, 

 bridles, and rugs, all complete ; the stipulation being that 

 they were to return to Rramham as they went, if required. 



As Colonel Thornton, of Thornville Royal (now known 

 as Allerton Park), was a contemporary of the Squire of 

 Bramham, and as he kept hounds, this may perhaps be the 

 best place to give a short notice of his hunting exploits. 

 That his hounds hunted over some portion of what is now 

 the Bramham Moor country is certain, though whether 

 special permission was given, or whether he ever had a 

 regularly-defined country, is more than I am able to state.* 

 There is little record left of his hunting, though we hear 

 plenty of his fishing and shooting. Falconry, however, 

 seems to have been his favourite sport ; and when the 

 country about Thornville Royal became more cultivated, he 

 sold it to Lord Stourton, and went to live in Wiltshire. 

 This was in 1808, and serves to mark the date of the 

 alteration which was taking place in the Bramham Moor 

 country. Notoriety was what Colonel Thornton loved, and 

 though he raced, and hunted, and shot, and was no doubt 

 an accomplished falconer, he seems to have done everything 

 more for the love of being talked about than for the love 

 of sport itself. Always ready to back himself or any of 

 his belongings, and a shrewd hand at making a match, it 

 is throuofh the bets he made about his hounds or his foxes 

 that his hunting is now remembered. And even the record 

 of what his hounds did when he won bets over them is all 

 too scanty, and we should like to have some history of the 

 undoubtedly excellent sport which he showed. The first 

 item of interest is in connection with a bet made with 

 Sir Harry Featherstone. 



" Col. Thornton seems to have gone pretty much where he hked during 

 the few years he kept hounds, and he probably kept hounds more for the sake 

 of display than for any real love of the sport. 



