A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE His successor, Lord Petre, who became master against his inclination, never really took much interest in them, and was unfor- tunate in having incompetent hunt servants. We read in Mr. Parry's diary of the season of 1831 that 'in consequence of Lord Petre's men being badly mounted and knowing nothing of the country, and none of them anything about hunting except the huntsman, who could not ride at all to his hounds, we lost all our best foxes that would have shown us runs. Never recollect so many foxes in Herts, nor so well found, and with proper management we must have had a capital season.' Lord Petre was succeeded by Mr. Dalyell, who had been master of the Forfarshire Hounds. He was a good sportsman and hunted his own hounds, but for some reason was not popular in the county, and after three seasons was glad to resign. In 1838 Mr. John Archer Houblon pur- chased the Puckeridge Hounds, and became joint master with Mr. J. Calvert of Albury Park and Mr. Nicholas Parry. Mr. Parry subsequently became sole master and owner of the pack, which he retained until the year 1875. He was a most thorough sportsman, and gave up nearly the whole of his time to the management of his hounds in the kennel and in the field. It was entirely owing to his perseverance that the Puckeridge became at that time a first-rate pack. The drafts from these hounds were keenly competed for by the masters of most of the best packs in England. Mr. Parry, during his thirty-six years of office as master of hounds, and also previously, kept a regular hunting diary, which occupies seven volumes of commonplace books. He records during the forty-seven years between 1827 and 1874 no less than 4,432 days' hunting, describing the runs and the doings of the hounds and naming the horses he rode each day. A mare named Cinderella was ridden by him forty-seven times during one season. He appears to have had very good sport considering the country was arable and not good scenting ground. It was no uncommon thing for him to kill on an average more foxes in a season than the number of days he hunted ; and this was not done, as sometimes is the case, by mobbing the cubs before the regular season began. In 1860 he found twenty-six litters of cubs. He records that his first four seasons as master cost him on an average 2,069 a se *son, which appears very moderate for four days a week. At the end of each season Mr. Parry in his diary gave a short account of the weather, sport and working of his hounds and horses, from which we find that no matter whether the season had been good or bad for scent the hounds worked capitally. Of course, in so many seasons, a great many good runs are recorded, and it is difficult to single out the best. Long hunting runs of three and some- times four hours were enough to please the most exacting. One run from Broadfield Spring on De- cember i, 1838, was an extraordinary one, for without going through any covert worth mentioning, the fox ran for two hours and five minutes over twenty-three miles of coun- try before he was killed at Langley Warren. Mr. Parry says, ' It was the best run I ever saw in my life with one fox.' Another good run is recorded on February 25, 1842, with a fox which was found at Gilston, and ran through Eastwick, Shirley Green, across the water at Blakes Ware, on to Nimley Bourn, through Camelhall Springs, Thorley and Tednambury, crossed the Stort to Hyde Hall, on to Hallingbury, and was killed in Hatfield Place after a run of two hours and fifty minutes, nearly the whole way at a severe pace. But probably the best run ever recorded was on March 5, 1846. Meet at Throck- ing. ' Found at Friars, went to Broadfield to drain at Throcking, from which he was bolted, ran for Hyde Hall and made a ring to Friars, leaving it on the right and back very fast to Broadfield, skirting Horney in a line for St. John's to Tannis and Barton Green and on to Great Munden church, through Hamels to Membly and Puckeridge to Old Hall, to Adam's covert, Blackney Mead Springs, and was killed within one field of Bartram's Wood. Distance about 28 miles.' Shortly before Mr. Parry gave up the hounds he had a bad fall, from the effects of which he never recovered. He lay for a long time unconscious, and his first words on coming to himself were, ' Did they kill him ? ' In 1875 Mr. Parry sold his pack to Mr. Robert Gosling of Hassobury, who hunted the whole country until 1885. Mr. Gosling took as much interest in hound breeding as Mr. Parry had done, and bred on much the same lines, chiefly from Belvoir sires. Mr. Gosling, who hunted the country practically at his own expense, mounted his men well and kept up the reputation of the pack. He was fortunate in obtaining the services of William Wells as huntsman, who had been tutored by George Carter, and had been first 354
