A HISTORY OF KENT 



volume.^ One day, while out cubbing, one 

 of the field who did not know the master 

 — the latter not being dressed exactly in 

 hunting costume — mistook Mr. Brockman 

 for one of the hunt servants and offered him 

 five shillings to put hounds on to an old dog- 

 fox that Mr. Brockman himself had just 

 viewed away. We are not told whether the 

 bribe was accepted. 



Mr. Brockman's popularity may be gauged 

 from the fact that some of the farmers in his 

 district paid him subscriptions amounting 

 to as much as ;^ioo at a time ; and the esteem 

 with which he was regarded is further evi- 

 denced by the presentation to him in 1866 

 of a portrait of himself by Stephen Pearce 

 which still hangs at Beachborough House. 

 The inscription underneath the picture 

 runs : — ' Presented by the members of the 

 E.K.H. and other friends as a mark of respect 

 and esteem to Frederick Brockman, Esq., 

 who for thirty-three successive seasons has 

 hunted the East Kent country.' 



Four years later Mr. Brockman was obliged, 

 owing to failing health, to end his long 

 and remarkable reign, when another testi- 

 monial, this time in the form of a valuable 

 gift of plate, was presented to him. 



The East Kent now entered upon a still 

 more prosperous era, when Dudley Francis, 

 seventh Earl of Guilford, whose name was 

 well known in connexion with racing, and 

 indeed with every form of sport, began his 

 nine years' mastership. This was in 1870, 

 and he began at once to hunt the country in 

 lavish style four days a week. His lordship's 

 most generous act was to build new kennels 

 and stables at Waldershare at a cost of some 

 £30,000. 



Foxes were not very plentiful, but Lord 

 Guilford was a keen man to hounds and it 

 was said of him that he could find a fox when 

 nobody else could. He showed good sport 

 until 1879 when his control of the pack 

 ceased, and it was a sad day - when he met 

 with his death in Dorset after a fall while 

 hunting. 



Mr. F. J. Mackenzie succeeded the Earl of 

 Guilford as master, but only stayed a season 

 or so, and Mr. \V. H. White, whose tenure 

 of office was equally short, came in 1881 and 

 went in 1882. The next master was Mr. 

 E. R. Sworder, who stayed with the pack 

 for seven years. During his mastership he 

 nearly lost his life through the earth falling 



* Trafford, The Foxhounds of Grrtit Britain and 

 Ireland, 146. 



^ On 19 December 1885. He was then master 

 of the Cattistock. 



in upon him while he was digging out a 

 badger, and it is said that he never really 

 recovered from the effects of that accident. 

 He left the East Kent in 1889 and went 

 to the Hertfordshire, of which he was master 

 for ten or eleven seasons. 



The next master of the East Kent was 

 Captain F. Fitzroy, who died at the end 

 of his first season. Foxes were still scarce 

 even at this date, but Captain Fitzroy showed 

 good sport with what there were ; and his 

 sad death, coming at the end of a long 

 run of bad luck and a series of vicissitudes 

 for the pack, cast a feeling of gloom over 

 the whole country. 



Mr. C. W. Prescott Westcar came next, 

 in 1 890, and stayed till 1 893 . He was followed 

 by Mr. A. B. Worthington (i 893-1 894), 

 and Mr. L. E. Bligh, who stayed till 1898, 

 when he left to hunt the Minehead Harriers. 

 He was succeeded by Mr. Wilfred Baker White, 

 who controlled the destinies of the hunt till 

 1900, when the present master, Mr. William 

 Selby-Lowndes, took hold. Mr. White went 

 to the West Kent, with whom he stayed 

 till 1904. 



The present master came from the Bilsdale 

 pack, where he had been for three seasons. 

 His father was master of the Whaddon Chase, 

 which pack has been hunted by the Selby- 

 Lowndes,family since the end of the eighteenth 

 century. The present master of the East 

 Kent began with a pack of harriers at the 

 age of thirteen, and afterwards went to 

 America, where he hunted the fox for two 

 vears. 



Since Mr. Selby-Lowndes came to the 

 East Kent the quality of the sport has been 

 much improved. Foxes are more plentiful, 

 and a good feeling prevails between shooting 

 and hunting men as well as among the farmers. 

 During his first five years of mastership Mr. 

 Lowndes accounted for 6ji brace of foxes, 

 a tally which beats all previous East Kent 

 records.^ The pack is now forty-five couples 

 strong, and contains Belvoir, Grafton, and 

 Warwickshire blood. 



Hounds meet four times a week. The 

 country is about twenty-four miles in length 

 by eighteen miles from north to south, and 

 extends from the Tickham boundary on the 

 north-west to the sea on the south and east. 

 About half of the area is plough, with plenty 

 of grass and downland, and a little jumping 

 of ditches and fences in the lowlands. A 

 few of the fences in other parts of the country 

 are somewhat stifT. The best part of the 

 low country is the Ashford Vale. A sum 



Foxhounds of Great Britain and Ireland, 147. 



482 



