H 



HISTORY OF THE BRAMHAM MOOR HUNT. 



country. Very different is the aspect of country now : 

 westward, factory chimneys and collieries have rendered 

 hunting impossible, or nearly so, and from being one of the 

 most thinly-populated districts in the country, the Bramham 

 Moor district has grown beyond the expectations of the 

 most sanguine. During the last sixty years the growth 

 has been immense, and in 1891 the population of the West 

 Riding was 2,464,415, whilst sixty years previous it had 

 been short of 800,000. This has naturally had its effect 

 upon hunting in more ways than one. The area of the 

 Hunt westward has been considerably circumscribed by 

 increased industrial operations. Then fields have become 

 larger and larger with each year, and sometimes they reach 

 almost unwieldy dimensions ; whilst in some parts of the 

 country, foot people, who were scarcely ever seen in the olden 

 time, crowd every coign of vantage, and carriages fill the 

 lanes ; both tending to make foxes run shorter than they 

 were wont to do, and to give the huntsman many an 

 anxious minute. 



In 1 816, a deputation from the city of York waited 

 upon Mr. James Lane Fox, and asked him to cede a 

 portion of the country which had hitherto been hunted by 

 the Bramham Moor to the newly-formed York and Ainsty 

 pack. Mr. Fox, who had really more country than he 

 could hunt, and who, moreover, never thought it likely that 

 the country would undergo such great changes, conceded 

 that part of the Ainsty which lies to the east of the 

 Tadcaster road, there being some stipulation to the effect 

 that if the York hounds were ever given up, this country 

 should again revert to the Bramham Moor. 



Shortened as it is on both sides, the Bramham Moor, 

 country can still afford plenty of room for four days a week. 

 Its extreme eastern boundary is the Tadcaster road above 

 mentioned, the country running northerly as far as Wilstrop 



