The most important event in connection with hunting which has taken
place in Yorkshire since the season begun—perhaps the most important
event in the hunting history of the century so far—was the cap which was
taken at the Habton fixture of the Sinnington Hunt on December 7th for
the Hunt Servants’ Benefit Society; for if Lord Helmsley’s example is
followed, as followed no doubt it will be and should be, that deserving
Society will receive such an access of income as will enable it to
fulfil all the duties of a benefit society in a manner which its
founders in their most sanguine moments never dreamed of. Lord
Helmsley’s happy inspiration met with a cordial response from those who
threw in their lot with his hounds on the 7th, and, as many anticipated,
annual subscribers to the Society answered cheerily to the courteous
appeal of Mr. Alfred Pearson, who stood at the gate with the cap; the
result was that a sum of £21 was collected. Ever prompt in anything
which furthers the interests of hunting and those who hunt, Captain Lane
Fox announced that a cap would be taken at Tockwith for the same purpose
on the 15th, and though at the time of writing no account is to hand of
what took place, there is no doubt that the response from the Bramham
Moor field will be found as generous as that of their Sinnington
friends. If this happy idea of Lord Helmsley’s is taken up all over the
country and becomes an annual institution, as there is no reason that it
should not, it would mean an access of income to the Hunt Servants’
Benefit Society of something between £4,000 and £5,000, and yet none
would feel one penny the worse for the trifle he had given, whilst he
would enjoy his sport all the better for knowing that he had done
something to assist a deserving body of men to whom he owed so much.
The Bramham Moor have had a succession of good sport. On November 18th
they had a capital day from Hutton Hall. They did little with their
first fox, but with number two they had a brilliant forty-five minutes
over the cream of the Ainsty country. He was an outlying fox, found in a
turnip field outside Robin Hood’s Wood, and they raced him by Healaugh,
Duce Wood, Askham Grange, and Ainsty Spring, and rolled him over in
Bilbrough Park. A travelling fox was viewed as they were breaking this
one up, and they ran him hard by Catterton, and then round by Askham
Richard, and on to Healaugh, where they rolled him over.
On the 24th they had another good day. Finding a fox in White Syke Whin
they ran him by Hutton Thorns, Rufforth and Rufforth Whin, and a ring
round by the Harrogate railway, nearly to Hutton Thorns again, and up to
Rufforth Village, where they checked. Hitting off the line they hunted
on over the Boroughbridge road and into Red House Wood, where they
marked their fox to ground.
They had another good Friday on December 8th, when they met at Wighill
Village. Curiously enough, like the Hutton Hall day, it was a day of
outlying foxes. A fox was viewed as hounds were moving off to try Shire
Oaks, and for an hour hounds ran him very cheerily by Duce Wood, New
Buildings and Wighill Avenue, over the Thorp Arch road, and on to the
Carrs, below Esedike. Thence they ran a very similar ring by Shire Oaks
and back by Wighill Avenue and Village, to the banks of the Wharfe,
where they marked him to ground. Then came a fine burst of twenty
minutes from Shire Oaks, by Tadcaster and Catterton Spring to Healaugh
Church, near which the fox got to ground just in front of hounds. The
day was brought to a conclusion by a gallop with another outlying fox,
who jumped up in front of hounds at Angram, and they hunted him cheerily
by Askham Whin, Collier Hagg, Healaugh and Normans to Askham Whin, where
he beat them.
The Sinnington had a capital day from Habton Village on December 7th.
They found their first fox in Skelton Whin, and had a good hour’s run
with him by Riseborough and back through Skelton Whin up to Little
Barugh, whence they ran a ring back to the whin and killed. They had
barely eaten their fox when another went away, and they ran him at a
good pace by Riseborough Hill and Normanby, and past Hobground House to
Brawby Bridge, where a check took place. The fox was thought to have
gone to ground, but he had gone through, and it was probably him that
they killed when they went back to Riseborough.