1800.] OF HAMPSHIRE. 3 



their head several well-known sportsmen : one, 

 indeed, Thomas Assheton Smith, has recently 

 had a book to himself, which has absorbed 

 almost the entire history of the far-famed 

 Tedworth, while the names of Villebois and 

 Foster, John Warde, Chute, Cope, and others, 

 are familiar to most of the present day. In 

 order that justice may be done to their 

 memories, and that they and others who were 

 their contemporaries may not be forgotten, 

 the author will humbly endeavour to bring 

 each forward in the time he lived. 



At this time packs of hounds had Mr. Evelyn, 

 no regular fixtures, or country, and 

 foxes were not preserved as at the present 

 day ; and a master frequently moved his 

 hounds from kennel to kennel, and met 

 wherever he heard there was a chance of 

 finding. The first gentleman having hounds 

 in Hants of whom I have found any record, 

 was Mr. Evelyn,* who hunted the country 

 about 1745. He had his kennels at Harms- 

 worth, where Mr. Villebois afterwards resided, 

 and also others at his seat near Wrotham, in 

 Kent. He rode a famous grey stallion, the 

 sire of many good hunters; and this horse 



* "A family named Evelyn lived at Martyr Worthy, one of whom 

 built the Mansion House there about the beginning of the eighteenth 

 centurv." — Duthy's History of Hants. 



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