CHAPTER II 



MORE RECENT TIMES 



A FTER the retirement of Sam Hills from the Old 

 * * Surrey in 1892 — an event which caused general 

 regret, but age will not be denied — he was succeeded by 

 Jim Cockayne, who had been first whip to the Essex. In 

 1896 Cockayne went as huntsman to the Puckeridge. 

 Mr. Edmund Byron hunted the hounds during the next 

 two years, and showed plenty of excellent sport ; but, 

 owing to a bad fall which he sustained in the local Point- 

 to-Point races, he was obliged to give up carrying the 

 horn. Tom Attrill, who had come to Mr. Byron from 

 the Vine as first whip, hunted the pack from 1898 to 

 1900. C. Wesley, who had at one time hunted the West 

 Kent, came next, giving up when Mr. Byron resigned the 

 Mastership in 1902. 



Since that year the present Master, Mr. H. W. Boileau, 

 has hunted the hounds himself. His whippers-in are 

 Charles Gosden and Richard Froude. The hounds meet 

 twice a week — on Tuesday and Saturday, with an occa- 

 sional bye day, and the average attendance (mounted) is 

 about fifty. Of course, sometimes that number is largely 

 augmented. 



The hounds were given to the country, as previously 



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