_From the Painting by P. Reinagle._]
]
The Dukes of Beaufort had hounds, bred and walked at Badminton; the
Pelhams had already formed the Brocklesby; Mr. Hugo Meynell had friends
enough to apply to for hounds to hunt Leicestershire three or four days
a week; and there were North country packs of fairly large dimensions.
It was, indeed, a very interesting subject, and it is not a little
singular that the idea of breeding hounds on scientific principles
commenced at almost the same time as a change was taking place in regard
to the animal to be hunted. Nearly half the eighteenth century had
passed away before our forefathers had given up the custom of hunting
the wild stag and the hare as almost the only quarries to be hunted on a
line of scent. Just as the story of the Silk Wood run relates that the
fifth Duke of Beaufort changed from stag to fox, because the latter gave
the better burst, and laid himself out for a more open country, there
was a general consensus of opinion that the time had come for a great
breed of hounds to be carefully bred and trained for this special
running. The bold onward style and cunning of the fox wanted something
with more dash than was required for the short-running deer, or the hare
always wanting to retrace her own foil. The fox taught that exquisite
forward cast that almost sums up the pleasure of hunting; and the faster
hounds will throw themselves on a line that is always well ahead of
them, the more exhilarating is the sport. That is what the old pioneers
of foxhunting lived for, and one may suppose it was brought about by
selecting the hounds of the day that possessed the particular dash
required. At any rate, old letters and manuscripts show that a vast
number of sportsmen became very keen in regard to breeding such hounds.
Long journeys were taken to secure their blood, and as one of the
pleasantest of sporting writers has curtly put it, “the love of
foxhunting was well in the air.”
It is almost incredible what the sportsmen of 1750 did do. As Mr.
Pelham, the ancestor of the Earls of Yarborough lent a hound called
Jimper to Lord Percival in 1760, and as he was stated to be by one
called Rockwood, there is a suggestion of a back pedigree at that time.
In fact, there was another of Mr. Pelham’s of 1760 called Marquis, by
Rockwood a son of Rattler, by Lord Monson’s Mischief. Again, there is
another of Mr. Pelham’s in 1766, by Tickler son of Ferrymann by Twister
out of Careful, a daughter of Lord Granby’s Danger. Sir Walter Vavasour
appears to have been in the thick of the hound furore of the time, and
so does Sir Roland Winnes, Mr. Hassell, Mr. Watson of Old Malton, Mr.
Lane Fox, Lord Middleton, and the then Duke of Devonshire.
But for the fact that lists were not generally kept in these early days,
there is every reason to think that present hound pedigrees could be
traced from the hounds of 1730 or 1740, but the registration departments
of many of the great kennels could not have been very perfect as
although Brocklesby can boast of records to 1713, there must have been
some breaks up to 1745, when Mr. Pelham—afterwards the first Lord
Yarborough—saw the necessity of keeping such accounts of breeding
clearly and regularly, and so kept his stud books in his own
handwriting. Whether this practice lapsed or not is not recorded, but
when Mr. Tongue (Cecil) formulated his stud book, he could not go much
further back than 1787; or at least that was the last date he gave to a
hound called Dover, by Lord Monson’s Driver out of Whimsey. Cecil was a
most industrious investigator, and he would have gone back to the Ark
with sufficient evidence for the undertaking. As a matter of fact, my
old friend, who gave me most of his hound lists, pulled up at something
like the years referred to, his very latest date being 1779, when
mentioning a bitch called Rosamond, by Mr. Meynell’s Roister out of Lord
Ludlow’s Tasty. Of course, in making such researches, the difficulties
to overcome are that many packs have been dispersed, and so records have
ended. That really happened to Mr. Meynell’s, Lord Ludlow’s, Mr. John
Muster’s, and Lord Monson’s, to the detriment of perhaps the hereditary
packs that had been indebted to them for blood.
Considering that several changes have taken place in its history during
the past hundred and fifty years, it is remarkable that so much
hereditary material is forthcoming from Lord Middleton’s pack, but this
is partially due to the fact that one man and his son after him were the
huntsmen to it for nearly eighty years. These were William Carter and
Tom Carter, the former being in office when Sir Tatton Sykes took on the
country (with his brother, Sir Mark Masterman Sykes), that is now
occupied by Lord Middleton. That was in 1804, but William Carter, who
must have been an intelligent fellow, and particularly fond of dates and
pedigrees, knew all the hounds from 1764. The book he compiled—and which
is at the present time in the possession of Lord Middleton—was really
perfectly kept, and through its pages some of the entries can be most
certainly traced up to Cecil’s Stud Book, published in 1864, and so on
to occupants of the kennel benches to-day.
I have no doubt that several lines can be taken, but I turn, for
example, to a bitch called Jointress, who had quite a large family, in
different litters, numbering about sixteen couples. She was out of
Rosamond, 1775, by Sir William Vavasour’s Twister, out of Doxey, and the
line had still greater extent, as Jointress had a sister called Jessamy,
who was almost as prolific in producing good ones. Amongst the daughters
of Jointress was Magic, and the latter had a daughter called Prudence,
whose descendants came into the pack that was transferred by Mr. C.
Duncombe to Sir Masterman Sykes; but William Carter, in his note to that
effect, declares that most of these hounds were drafted. There is,
however, the strongest evidence that Prudence produced a son called
Pillager, and he was the sire of another Prudence, and in like manner a
dog called Fairplay—from Famous, a daughter of Jointress—was a notable
sire, and a son of his called Fairplay came into the Sykes’ pack at the
above-mentioned date; he was the sire of Brilliant and Blossom, entered
in 1805, and Brilliant was the sire of Boaster and Blue-Cap, and also of
Blossom, Barrister, and Barmaid. Blossom subsequently produced in 1814
three couples, named Bounty, Blue-Cap, Beauty, Barmaid, Boundless and
Bloomy; and Blossom likewise produced in another litter Bachelor,
Barrister, and Blameless. Of these Blue-Cap certainly became a sire of
note, and two and a half couples in two litters were put on by him in
1823, and one couple the year before. Sir Tatton Sykes appears to have
stuck to this line, as Barrister, son of Blue-Cap, was also bred from,
and was the sire of Brusher, Topper, Blue-Cap, Bachelor, and Blossom,
and this last-named Blue-Cap was the sire of Bellman and Barrister of
1834. Then Bonny Lass was by Brusher, and she was the dam of Bellmaid.
However, the very best branch of this family tree became noticeable in
1832, when Blossom, the sister to Blue-Cap, was mated to the Osbaldeston
Flagrant, and the result was three couples of puppies all put on in
1833; they were Furrier, Ferryman, Finder, Famous, Flagrant and
Favorite. Flagrant was possibly the best, as he was bred from in his
second season, and produced Dreadnought, Domo and Desperate for the 1835
entry; but Famous in 1838 had a couple and a half in the entry, and
Desperate had a daughter called Dainty entered in 1841. Primrose, a
daughter of Famous, was by Bondsman, one of the family, and so Primrose
was inbred to it. It may be thought that Bondsman was the sheet anchor
really of the sort, as he must have lived to be a nine-season hunter,
and one of his daughters, Music, and two of her sons, Denmark and
Vulcan, were in the pack that the eighth Lord Middleton took over from
Sir Tatton Sykes in 1853. There is more of the blood besides in the
Birdsall Kennel at the present time, and so with a clear pedigree of a
hundred and thirty years, to the good bitch Jointress of 1778, and her
descent is easily traceable to 1764.
Lord Middleton has another line, though that is quite as certain in
straining through the sixth Lord Middleton’s Vanguard and Darling to the
famous Corbet Trojan; and let it be known that all the Oakley Driver
sort—and there are none better at the present moment—trace to it through
the late Mr. Arkwright’s Cromy by Lord Middleton’s Chanticleer, and so
on to Vanguard, and his dam, Traffic, a great-granddaughter of Trojan’s.
There has been a fortunate dependence on the fame of many noted hounds,
such as Trojan, Vanguard, and, a little later still, to the Osbaldeston
Furrier. The great Squire was so celebrated for everything that
pertained to sport, that his declaration of Furrier being the very best
hound he had ever hunted in his life told immensely with the great
judges who became his successors, Mr. G. S. Foljambe, Sir Richard
Sutton, Lord Henry Bentinck, and Mr. Nicholas Parry. They made Furrier
the corner-stone of all their kennel-breeding operations, and so it is
not difficult to-day to trace the excellence of Lord Galway’s Barrister
blood, the Dorimont blood of the Blankney, all that remains of the
Puckeridge, and the old Quorn Dryden family to Furrier. The most popular
sire of to-day, the Belvoir Stormer, hits, according to my making out,
thirteen times to Furrier, and in Weathergage it was certainly
noticeable eight times. In all the great hounds talked of in the last
quarter of a century, such as the Fitzhardinge Cromwell, the Belvoir
Weathergage, the Croome Rambler, the Grafton Woodman, the Southwold
Freeman, or the Quorn Alfred, there is the line to the little black and
white—some have said shabby-looking hound—Furrier, who was got by the
Belvoir Saladin in 1820, Saladin being by Sultan, by Lord Sefton’s
Sultan by Mr. Hugo Meynell’s Guzman, of 1794, and Guzman was by German,
also belonging to Mr. Meynell. On the female line Furrier was related to
the Badminton Topper, and Sir William Lowther’s Dashwood to a bitch
called Amorous, of 1791. This is as far as “Cecil” thought it advisable
to go.
Mr. G. S. Foljambe, in the year 1835, had got some double hitting to the
Furrier family, as he bred the brothers Herald and Harbinger, by the
Osbaldeston Ranter, son of Furrier, out of Harpy by Herald son of
Hermit, son of Saladin, the sire of Furrier. From the brothers in
question Mr. Foljambe bred almost a pack. His Layman of 1861 was by
Nectar, son of Nectar of 1849, and the latter’s dam was Princess by
Harbinger, whilst the dam of the first-mentioned Nectar was Conquest,
her dam Captive by Herald. Barrister of 1860 hit twice to Layman, and so
again to the memorable brothers, and their blood was also in Sportsman
and Forester, and very much again in Lord Henry Bentinck’s Contest, who
was by Comus, son of Mr. Foljambe’s Herald, out of Sanguine, by the same
gentleman’s Sparkler, by Singer, son of Streamer, by the Vine Pilgrim
out of Sybil, by the Osbaldeston Ranter, son of Furrier. This is all
combined in modern day pedigrees, and especially through Sir Richard
Sutton’s Dryden, son of the Burton Contest, as he was the sire of
Destitute the dam of the famous Belvoir Senator, again through the
Croome Rambler, a descendant of the above Contest on his sire’s side,
and through the Grove Barrister’s on his dam’s. Also to the Belvoir
Weathergage, who was by Warrior, son of Wonder, son of Chanticleer, son
of Chaser, son of Brocklesby Rallywood, who traced three times to
Furrier, and then there was Royalty, the dam of Weathergage, got by
Rambler, brother to the third Rallywood. It may well appear that the
perfection of hound breeding was gained through their ancestry to the
Osbaldeston Furrier, and principally by the means of four hounds
selected to perpetuate the sort by probably two of the greatest masters
of hound breeding ever heard of—Mr. G. S. Foljambe, who relied on
Harbinger and Herald, and Mr. Nicholas Parry, who chose Pilgrim and
Rummager. The last line to old Furrier might have been lost in the
changes of time, but it looks now as if it will be stronger than ever
through the policy that has been pursued of late by the Marquis of
Zetland, Mr. Edward Barclay, the present Master of the Puckeridge, and
Captain Standish, the Master of the Hambledon, through four and a half
couples of whelps purchased in 1894 by the Hon. L. Baring at the
Puckeridge break-up sales. Captain Standish is also breeding from the
present Puckeridge Cardinal, who inherits the old strain from Gulliver.
High breeding and to follow in the steps of the old master’s must do a
great deal, as after all is said and done they must have known much
about it a hundred years ago. The picture which accompanies this paper
is dated 1804, and called “Foxhounds,” by Philip Reinagle, R. A.; Sir
Walter Gilbey in his interesting work on animal painters tells us that
Reinagle was born in 1749, and that he commenced to paint hunting scenes
when about thirty-four years old, in consequence of his intense love of
sport. He must have known all about it by the running of the pack in the
distance, and by the two hounds with their heads at just the right level
for that exquisite pose known as heads up, sterns down, and racing.