14 THE NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOUNDS. 



Woore country, Mr. Henry Davenport, elder brother of 

 Mr. AVilliam Davenport, kept a pack of harriers at Milton, 

 near Burslem. In 1835, he was unfortunately killed by 

 his horse falliug in jumping a stone wall. This pack was 

 sold and taken by canal-boat to Liverpool, where several 

 hounds escaped and found their way back to Milton. 

 Very shortly after this Mr. William Davenport followed 

 his brother's example, and we find him established with 

 a pack of harriers, and ready, in 1840, to begin to take 

 up some of the country then being vacated by Sir Thomas 

 Bouo-hey ; and in 1845 he commenced in real earnest to 

 improve and strengthen his pack of foxhounds, and was 

 a large buyer at Mr. Foljambe's sale in that year. 



Mr. Davenport, who was a thorough judge of hounds, 

 as well as an excellent sportsman, went in for the best of 

 blood from the outset, and besides the Foljambe purchase, 

 and two drafts from Assheton Smith, he bought a 

 Worcestershire pack that had been carefully bred by 

 Captain Candler mostly from Fitzhardinge-bred sires, and 

 a little later on Sir Massey Stanley's Cheshire pack of 

 twenty-five couples was bought. There were also drafts 

 from the Badsworth and the Belvoir, and after ten years' 

 breeding from such stock, Mr. Davenport's pack stood 

 second to very few in the country. 



Kather a big hound was popular in those days, Joe 

 Maiden being partial to size, or rather bone, and his dog- 

 hounds were pretty nearly twenty-four inches high, the 

 bitches being smaller, and in Maiden's time and afterwards 

 the lady pack enjoyed a very high reputation indeed. Joe 

 Maiden had a great fancy for the old Cheshire blood, and 

 he o-ot it to his satisfaction in the purchase from Sir Massey 

 Stanley. " Bedford " and " Pleader " were two noted sires 

 of the Cheshire blood which had much to do with the build- 

 ing up of the pack in Mr. Davenport's time, with Maiden's 

 advice and assistance. At the commencement of Mr. 

 Davenport's mastership, the kennels were at the Pottery 

 Racecourse, afterwards they were at Wolstanton for many 

 years, and in 1863 the hounds were moved into the new 



