SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN whip to Gillard with the Belvoir. William Wells is now huntsman to the Hertfordshire Hounds. In the last year of Mr. Gosling's mastership of the entire county there were three remarkable runs across the Essex country from Chickney Springs near Elsenham. In 1885 an unfortunate dispute arose, and the country was divided, Mr. Swindell taking a portion of it and hunting it from new ken- nels at Hay Street near Braughing, whilst the eastern side was hunted by a committee under the name of the ' Herts and Essex." In 1894 the country was happily reunited (in every sense of the word) under the master- ship of the Hon. L. J. Bathurst, who carried the horn himself and showed good sport. On Mr. Bathurst's resignation in 1896, Mr. Edward Barclay, long known as a suc- cessful master of harriers, was elected master of the Puckeridge. Mr. Barclay resides on his own property at Brent Pelham, in the centre of the country, where he has built kennels. Mr. Barclay hunts the dog-pack himself two days a week, whilst James Cockayne carries the horn with ' the ladies.' THE OLD BERKELEY HOUNDS The origin of the Old Berkeley Hounds is somewhat obscure. The country extended originally for about 120 miles, from Cranford in Middlesex to Berkeley Castle in Glouces- tershire ' from Kensington Gardens on the east to the suburbs of Bristol on the west.' This country was hunted by successive earls of Berkeley until 1800, the kennels being at Cranford in Middlesex, Gerrard's Cross in Bucks, Nettlebed in Oxfordshire, and at Berkeley Castle. Mr. Grantly Berke- ley, in his Reminiscences, published in 1854, says : ' Smith, in his MS. history of our family, speaks of a Lord Berkeley who used to keep his hounds at the village of Charing, with thirty huntsmen in tawny coats to attend upon them. My father maintained the orange or yellow or tawny plush for his Hunt. Mr. Combe (about 1820), in remem- brance of the name, called his hounds the Old Berkeley, and retained our livery ... to show the increase of packs of hounds in the last 80 or 100 years, my father (the fifth Earl of Berkeley) used to hunt all the country from Kensington Gardens to Berkeley Castle and Bristol. 1 Scratch Wood (near Elstree, now a joint covert of the Hertfordshire and the Old Berkeley) was the nearest covert to London ; 1 This country is now hunted by the Old Berkeley (East and West), the Berkshire, the Oxfordshire, and the Berkeley packs. but I have heard old Tom Oldaker say that while with my father he found a fox in Scratch Wood, and lost him in rough ground in Kensington Gardens. There was a ken- nel at Cranford, I believe, a kennel at Ger- rard's Cross, and I know there was one at Nettlebed (in Oxfordshire) in my father's time. Where else the hounds used to be put up in that wide stretch of country I know not, but I suppose occasionally at inns.' It was apparently found convenient to hunt one part of the country for about three weeks or a month at a time, and then to remove the hounds to other kennels and to hunt another part of the country for about the same period, for we read in the Sporting Magazine that 'On Saturday, November n, 1797, the Old Berkeley Hounds removed from Marlow, after hunting in Berkshire, to their kennels at Ger- rard's Cross, from which they alternately hunt their Herts and Bucks districts till some time after Christmas, when they return to Berk- shire.' A good run is recorded in the Sporting Magazine of 1796. The fox was found in Newlands Wood, ran to ground in Moor Park, Rickmansworth, then the residence of Mr. Rous, was bolted by terriers, and ran to ground again in Batch Wood near St. Albans. In 1 80 1 the Old Berkeley pack became a subscription pack managed by Lord Berkeley, Mr. Williams and Mr. Dupr6. The hounds were, in 1810, taken by the Hon. and Rev. W. W. Capel, with Tom Oldaker as his huntsman, and were kept at Gerrard's Cross. These kennels were afterwards turned into a public house, and on the wall of the adjoin- ing cottage a stone still bears the inscription, ' Huntsman's Hall, 1796.' They had three famous runs in Mr. Capel's time from Oxhey, one to ground where Wil- .esden station now stands ; another round Harrow Hill, and killed at Rickmansworth ; and a third run with a kill in Hatfield Park, a fifteen-mile point. In 1816 they had a great run from Bury Bushes, three hours ten minutes, and out of a field of 300 only fifteen were at the finish. Tom Oldaker was hunts- man for thirty-two years. His picture was twice painted by Marshall ; once on his cele- brated horse Brush, which he rode for seven- teen seasons. Grantly Berkeley says of him that when there was little or no scent to serve him he could ' guess a fox to death.' He died at the age of eighty, in the year 1831. The tawny yellow plush coat was only the hunt livery, the members of the hunt wear- ing scarlet with yellow collars. During the mastership of Mr. Capel a cele- 355
