CHAPTER V 



THOMAS VEALE LANE: 1845-49 



Kennels at Oaklands, Chudleigh — His own hvintsman — Chiirchward whipper- 

 in — Marqms of Waterford in South Devon : finds his match in Tom Lane 

 — Horses — Steeplechases in those days : " Vingt-et-un " — " For the 

 Honour of Devon " — Personal recollections — Name " Devon Fox- 

 hounds " retained — First mention of " South Devon " : Herbert BjTig 

 Hall; Fores' s Guide — " Gelert " : the country "one of the worst 

 in England " — Sir Henry Scale's Hounds — Name " South Devon " 

 borrowed by another pack — Extracts from Woolmer's Exeter and Ply- 

 mouth Gazette : "Notes of Sport"; hunt dinner — Sir Henry Hoare — 

 Lane's talent for painting — Hound Ust. 



" Light-hearted Tom ! whose kindly tongue 

 With happy joke is ever hung ; 

 Than he no hunter tops a fence 

 With stronger nerve or less pretence ; 

 And none who join him e'er complain 

 Of dullness in a Devon lane." 



(Dartmoor Days.) 



CAPTAIN HA WORTH was succeeded in the 

 mastership by Mr. Lane, who built kennels at 

 the farm, now called Oaklands, which he had taken 

 near Chudleigh. He acted as his own huntsman and 

 had for whip Churchward, who, later, in Mr. Whid- 

 borne's first mastership became huntsman to the 

 pack. 



Mr. Lane had the reputation of being an excellent 

 huntsman, very quick and quiet. He was also a 

 light-weight and a hard rider. When the famine 

 stopped hunting in Ireland for a time, the celebrated 

 Lord Waterford brought some of his crack hunters 

 down to South Devon, with the idea that he would 

 shew the natives how to ride over their own country. 



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