SPORT 



of £i,ioo per annum is guaranteed the master, 

 together with kennels, stables, and hunt 

 servants' cottages rent free, and a poultry 

 fund. 



In that part of Kent which is now 

 adjacent to London or actually part of it, 

 two or three packs of hounds existed in 

 early times. During the last decade of the 



1793, at which time, as already mentioned, 

 packs were established, or in being, at Bromley 

 and Sydenham. 



When Sir Percival Dyke's conne.xion with 

 the country came to an end in 1834, ^ Mr. 

 Waring, who then kept a pack of harriers in 

 the district, bought some of his foxhounds 

 and hunted both fox and hare for a few 



eighteenth century there was fox-hunting seasons. About the year 1836 Mr. Forrest 



in the Bromley portion of the county, and 

 there was another pack which was kennelled 

 at Sydenham, and hunted what we might 

 now call the Crystal Palace side of the country. 

 On the Bromley side Sir John Dixon Dyke 

 of Horeham, baronet, held sway in the last 



appeared upon the scene and established 

 kennels with a fresh pack of hounds at Green- 

 hithe, and here it would seem that the West 

 Kent began a new lease of life about which 

 particulars are almost entirely wanting. 

 What became of Mr. Waring's pack nobody 



quarter of the eighteenth century, and was knows, and it is doubtful whether his hunt 

 succeeded by other members of the same could properly be called the West Kent at all 



family, who are credited with having hunted 

 the country up till about the year 1830, at 

 which period the name of the West Kent 

 Hunt first appears. 



It would seem, however, that Sir John 

 Dyke's pack was actually given up some time 

 before this, for his eldest son, Sir Thomas 

 Dyke, fourth baronet, is spoken of ^ as having 

 started a fresh pack of dwarf hounds about this 

 period, his custom being to hunt fox in the 

 spring, and hare during the earlier part of the 

 season. After Sir Thomas Dyke came his 

 brother Sir Percival Hart Dyke, fifth baronet. 



Mr. Forrest apparently hunted hounds 

 until 1844, although no details of his master- 

 ship are to be discovered, and the next 

 authentic master of whom we hear is Mr. 

 Tom Colyer, who founded yet another pack 

 with kennels at Milton near Gravesend. 



Mr. Colyer's term of office lasted until 

 1856, when without any previous warning 

 or for any apparent reason he disappeared in 

 the middle of the season, and was never seen 

 again. During his mastership he had done 

 a great deal for the country, and had estab- 

 lished a good pack by purchases from the 



It appears, therefore, that not only had Sir kennels of Mr. Selby-Lowndes, of the Whad 



John Dyke's pack been dispersed, but also don Chase, and from Sir Richard Sutton's 



that of Sir Thomas. Sir Percival gave up his pack. He always hunted hounds himself 



pack in or about the year 1834, Richard Hills and showed some really good sport, although 



having acted as huntsman both to him and he did not by any means hunt the whole of 



to Sir Thomas. 



These are some of the names connected 

 with hunting in West Kent up to about 

 the time when the present hunt began to be 

 known by its existing title ; but fox-hunt- 

 ing in Kent had existed long before the 

 establishment of the Bromley pack, and one 

 lot of hounds at least went farther afield 

 than either of the packs kennelled at Bromley 

 or Sydenham. 



This was the old-established hunt founded 

 by the famous John Warde - of Squerries, who 

 had kennels at Westerham in the year 1776. 

 No one else seems to have had a share of the 

 West Kent country at this time, and Mr. 

 John Warde hunted the whole of it up to 



1 Foxhounds of Great Britain and Ireland. 



2 John Warde's name is, of course, famous in 

 many hunting circles outside Kent, for in 1797 we 

 find him with the Pytchley, where he remained 

 until 1808, and with the New Forest from the 

 latter year to 1 8 14. Afterwards he went to the 

 Craven, and stayed with them until 1825, so that 

 altogether he was a master of hounds for half a 

 century, with only one break of four seasons. 



the available country. His foxes are said to 

 have had a particular affection for Surrey and 

 many of his best runs were in that direction 

 from the Pol Hill coverts. 



On Mr. Colyer's sudden disappearance 

 the Honourable Ralph Pelham Nevill, of 

 whom we shall hear again presenth', took over 

 the pack for the remainder of the season, 

 and thus saved the hunt from a remarkably 

 awkward situation. At the end of the season 

 Mr. Colyer's pack was put up to auction, 

 part of it being bought by Mr. Armstrong 

 and Mr. Wingfield Stratford, and the 

 remainder sold to Mr. Tailby. New kennels 

 were built at Betsham, Southfleet, where 

 Mr. Armstrong lived, and drafts were pur- 

 chased from Mr. Nun's, Mr. Cawston's, and 

 the Oakley kennels. 



Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Stratford hunted 

 the country as joint masters for a season or 

 so, when the latter retired, and a year later, 

 in 1858, Mr. Armstrong sold his hounds, 

 which meanwhile had been supplemented by 

 a draft from Mr. Farquharson's. 



Mr. Wingfield Stratford now purchased 



4S3 



