NOTES TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 253 



Falkirk and Culloden. On his return from the war he was 

 elected M.P. for York. He died rather suddenly in 1 771, at 

 the age of fifty, leaving his son Thomas a minor. 



The boy had been sent to Charterhouse, where he remained 

 till he was fourteen, and then went to Glasgow College, where 

 he had been about two years when his father died, and 

 stayed there three years longer. It was then that he manifested 

 a passion for field-sports, especially Hawking, on which he ex- 

 pended much time and money, resolving to bring the sport as 

 near perfection as possible. 



Leaving Glasgow College at the age of nineteen, he repaired 

 to the family mansion at Thornville Royal, where, with well- 

 trained hawks and dogs, he formed the basis of a sporting 

 establishment which afterwards became famous. He joined the 

 West York Regiment of Militia, of which he subsequently be- 

 came Colonel, and formed a Falconers' Club, to which reference 

 will be made when describing the trophy presented to him 

 by its members (Plate IX.). 



His love of foxhunting led him to keep a pack of foxhounds, 

 and there is a fine engraved portrait of him, by Sawrey Gilpin, 

 on horseback, cap in hand, cheering his hounds. Another half- 

 length portrait of him, wearing a hunting-cap, forms the engraved 

 frontispiece to vol. iii. of the " Annals of Sporting," 1823. 



He was fond of racing, and used to ride matches himself. 

 One such is on record, which created a great deal of interest at 

 the time. This match, for four miles over Knavesmire, was 

 ridden on the 24th March 1778, on a horse named " Sir Thomas 

 Thumb," against Mr. Hare, who rode a horse called "Tu 

 Quoque." After a close contest Colonel Thornton won. 



His bodily activity was remarkable. In a walking match he 

 went four miles in thirty-two minutes. In leaping he cleared his 

 own height (5ft. gin.) for a considerable bet. In another match 

 he leapt over six five-barred gates in six minutes, and then 

 performed the same feat on horseback. At Newmarket, on 

 horseback, he ran down a hare, which he picked up, in the pre- 

 sence of a large concourse of people assembled to witness the feat. 

 He was an excellent shot with gun and rifle, and a good fisherman. 

 But it is as a falconer that we have chiefly to consider him. He 

 was especially skilled in flights at the kite, and in grouse- 

 and snipe-hawking, and his published " Sporting Tour " (No. 57) 



