In Memoriam.
THE LATE CAPTAIN J. T. R. LANE FOX.
A sportsman has been taken from amongst us last month in the person of
Captain J. T. R. Lane Fox, the Master of the Bramham Moor Hounds, who
could ill be spared; and in whose memory it is fitting that a few words
should be said in your pages.
Captain Lane Fox was the second son of the late Mr. George Lane Fox, for
many years master of the Bramham Moor pack, whose strong personality
gave him a foremost place in Yorkshire and throughout the world of
sport, as well as among English country gentlemen. Captain Lane Fox had
therefore handed down to him a heritage of no mean character, when he
succeeded his father ten years ago.
Having acted as his father’s deputy in the hunting field for the last
few seasons of the old Squire’s life, his transition to the mastership
came almost as a matter of course, and was universally welcomed by the
most loyal set of sportsmen that we are acquainted with. Few such
elegant yet determined horsemen are to be found nowadays as was the late
Dick Lane Fox (as his familiars delighted to call him). From the day he
left Eton and joined the Grenadier Guards, serving in Canada and riding
many races and steeplechases there, until, on his retirement from the
army, he settled down, on his marriage, in the confines of Bramham Park
as his father’s right-hand man, he was the idol of all his friends and
neighbours.
Unfortunately, he had experienced a bad fall whilst in Canada, which
told upon his health and constitution ever afterwards. Indeed, this
would have been the cause of banishing many less ardent sportsmen
altogether from the hunting field, yet with the subject of our memoir it
was not so. There were times when I have witnessed with admiration the
pluck with which he seemed to triumph over his constitutional weakness.
It was then a treat to see him go to hounds; such a superb seat, hands,
and judgment as his made him conspicuous even in a large hard-riding
field like the Bramham, and demonstrated his superb talents as a
sportsman. It may well be said of Dick Lane Fox that from old Eton days,
when I first enjoyed his friendship, down to the sad event of last
month, that he never made an enemy but cemented many a friendship. He
had above all a natural aversion to obtrusiveness, which prevented him
often from doing himself justice; yet the shrewd, true-hearted
Yorkshiremen knew him too well not to appreciate him as a country
gentleman as well as a sportsman. He lived to see his eldest son George
take his place in the hunting field in a way that he could not fail to
be proud of; the veritable likeness of his grandfather; and beyond this,
in spite of one defeat, he rejoiced to see him elected as M.P. for the
Barkston Division of Yorkshire, after as big a fight as ever aroused the
political feelings of that district.
Mrs. Lane Fox was a Milmay, of excellent sporting blood, and a devoted
wife, who survives him, so that on both sides of the family the present
inheritor of Bramham (one of the finest estates in broad Yorkshire)
combines the makings of all that is best in the life of a country
gentleman and a sportsman.
Personally I mourn, in conjunction with innumerable others, over the
loss of a life-long friend, yet our sadness is tempered by the glad
reflection that such an unsullied name, such a bright example, and such
an ennobling compeer, should have gone to his rest so peaceably, and
have left behind him a splendid well cared-for estate, and a descendant
in every way worthy of upholding the fame of Bramham and its famous “25
couple,” and likely to fill yet another niche in the temple of fame
amongst Yorkshire worthies.