SPORT 



which is worthy of record. It is said of him 

 that he killed his first Tickham fox at Tong 

 on the farm belonging to Mr. T. Bensted, 

 the ' Father ' of the hunt, and that he made 

 it a practice of going to Tong for his first fox 

 of the year in each succeeding season. Further 

 than this he is credited with having killed 

 an early season fox, if not the very first, within 

 the parish during every year of his mastership. 



On Mr. Rigden's death the hunt committee, 

 with Lord Harris as chairman, met — for the 

 first time in twenty years — at the Bull Hotel 

 at Sittingbourne, and accepted the offer of 

 Mrs. Rigden to lend the horses and hounds 

 to the country for the season. Mr. George 

 P. Elystan Evans, late master of the Cam- 

 bridgeshire, was asked to accept the master- 

 ship, which he agreed to do in conjunction 

 with Mrs. Rigden. Since that time the 

 Tickham Hunt has been carried on under 

 that arrangement, a guarantee of some )£i,6oo 

 to ;fi,8oo per annum being made towards 

 the expenses of maintenance. 



Latterly, there have been resignations 

 and rumours of resignations, but up till 

 1907 no definite change in the establish- 

 ment of the Tickham Hunt has been made. 

 At the last meeting of the committee, on 

 4 December 1906, the joint masters tendered 

 their resignation for the second or third time, 

 and a resolution was carried asking them to 

 reconsider their decision. 



When Mr. Evans took over the Tickham 

 pack he found it one of the best in the king- 

 dom, and so it has been maintained up to 

 the present time. The pack is full of Bel- 

 voir and Wanvickshire blood, with charac- 

 teristic features of good back ribs, shapely 

 necks and broad powerful shoulders. Much 

 of the good blood in the kennel is due to 

 the influence of that good sire Nestor, ^ whose 



^ Sir Humphrey F. de Trafford, bart., The 

 Foxhounds of Great Britain and Ireland, 1906. 

 Nestor's pedigree is as under : — 

 NESTOR, 1900 



00. (Weathergagc,i8;6 



* I Gratitude, iSSo 



(Syntax, iS8o 



(Needful, 1877 



[Milton Solomon, 



1879 

 ( Handsome, 1882 

 j-Belvoir Falliblv, 



1874 

 (.Ro.y, 1877 

 (Weathergage, 1S76 

 Gratitude, 18S0 

 Oakley Rende 



Stella, 

 1893 



(Belvoir Game- 

 boy, 18S4 

 Anxious, 1886. 



{Oakley Render, 

 18S3 

 Oakley Angrv, 

 1879 



-(Selim, 1878 

 (Senseless, 18; 



lRhapsody,.88.||',^;-;',;«;5 



/-Milton Somer-JSelim, 1878 

 ..( set, 1883 t Senseless, 1879 



progeny are to be met with in many other 

 noted kennels. 



At the present time the Tickham Hunt 

 possesses fifty couples of hounds, which Mr. 

 Evans hunts himself. They meet three times a 

 week. The country hunted is about twenty- 

 five miles from east to west, by fifteen miles 

 from north to south, and on the west the West 

 Kent territory forms the boundary. On the 

 east the East Kent country is touched, and on 

 the south that of the East Sussex, together 

 with a large area of land that is not hunted 

 by any pack of foxhounds. Plough-land is 

 chiefly met with, as well as a considerable 

 tract of large woods, but pasture is on the 

 increase nearly everywhere. There is plenty 

 of jumping of a moderately stiff order, and 

 wire is plentiful, but possible of negotiation 

 at marked places. Most of the country is 

 hilly, and a fast, stout horse is the best. 



Fox hunting was pursued in the eastern 

 portion of Kent probably quite as early as 

 in any other part of the county, but nothing 

 in the way of reliable record can be discovered 

 previous to the time of Sir Henry Oxenden 

 of Broome Park, seventh baronet, the possessor 

 of a noted pack of ' spayed ' bitches, with 

 which he hunted the country until about 

 1828. He was succeeded by Sir Brook 

 William Bridges of Goodnestone, fifth baronet 

 (afterwards Lord Fitz-Walter of Woodham 

 Walter), and later by Mr. William Deedes 

 of Sandling Park, who carried on the pack 

 until 1832. 



At the expiration of Mr. Deedes' master- 

 ship Mr. James Drake Brockman of Beach- 

 borough, of whom it may be said that he 

 was the real founder of the East Kent Hunt, 

 came into power, and controlled the country 

 for no fewer than thirty-eight years. 



Mr. Brockman's period of mastership 

 began at a time of many difficulties ; but 

 after several disappointments and some oppo- 

 sition, he succeeded in overcoming the 

 prejudice against fox-hunting that existed 

 in some quarters, and popularized the sport 

 among the tenant farmers of that part of 

 the county. At the same time he concen- 

 trated his attention upon the formation of 

 a really sound pack, and finding foxes rather 

 scarce, went to the trouble of importing some 

 from across the Channel. The interests of 

 game-preserving in this part of Kent were 

 being more and more jealously guarded every 

 year during Mr. Brockman's mastership, but 

 so tactful was he that foxes soon began to 

 flourish and blank days became fewer every 

 season. 



A good story is told of Mr. Brockman in 

 Sir Humphrey de Trafford's magnificent 



481 



61 



