TATTERSALL'S. We THE betting at the Corner still continues languid in the extreme. therefore merely give the latest state of the odds. The changes that have taken place during the month being so trifling, as not to justify us in given the monthly table. 50 50 50 .. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 .. .. .. .. .. DERBY. Mr. Forth's lot (taken) Sir G. Heathcote's lot (taken) Chatham and Barrier (taken) Mr. Wreford's Wiseacre Lord Westminster's Auckland (taken and afterwards offered) Mr. Gregory's Defier Mr. Bowes's Meteor Mr. Greenwood's Lasso (taken) Mr. Scott's Artful Dodger Lord Chesterfield's Joanna colt (taken and afterwards offered) Mr. Dixon's Policy (take 1000 to 15) 1000..10 Lord Orford's W id-duck colt (taken and afterwards offered) MASTERS OF HOUNDS. BY NIMROD. No. VIII. MR. CODRINGTON-COL. WYNDHAM-MR. CRAVEN~HIS LATE MAJESTY, KING GEORGE THE FOURTH THE LATE DUKE OF CLEVELAND-MR. RALPH LAMBTON. MR. CODRINGTON. ANOTHER of the slow ones, and another good sportsman, brother-inlaw to Mr. Wyndham. I only hunted once with Mr. Codrington, and that was in the country now hunted by his brother-in-law: and that day I shall never forget. After a vain attempt to drive a fox away from something like a two-thousand acre cover, a young man was seen galloping towards it, hat in hand, decisive of his having seen our fox. It proved to be so; and what did Mr. Codrington do? Why, after getting his hounds out of this immense cover, a work of no little time, and then counting them, away he rode to the holloa, at the rate of an eight mile an hour trot! The scent, however, was faster than he was, and when he got to it "the place thereof knew it no more." But far be it for me to speak disrespectfully of Mr. Codrington as a sportsman; if I did, I should speak in opposition to general opinion, which I am very shy of doing; I believe he is as good judge of a hound and his hunting, as any man need be; but I wish to mark my disapprobation of such slow men in the saddle, as Messrs. Codrington and Wyndham the former rendered so by his weight,-the latter without even such an excuse-attempting to hunt foxhounds. Steven Goodall, a huntsman of the first class, disgusted all Oxfordshire by the slowness of his operations, and bynot being with his hounds when wanted. The result of his immensely increased weight. I believe Mr. Codrington had an offer of the Oakley country some years back, which he declined. He now hunts the New Forest, but with what success I am unable to say, as my steps have not been directed towards that part of England during the last ten years. COLONEL GEORGE WYNDHAM. I MAY as well continue "true to the line," and introduce to my readers another Wyndham. I have not had much experience of Col. George Wyndham's hounds, but I saw enough of them to enable me to make a few remarks, both on them and their master; and I am not likely to forget the former, by reason of having had a fall when following them, the effects of which I felt for six or seven years. Whether or not Colonel Wyndham hunted his hounds himself at the NO. XV.-VOL. III.-NEW SERIES. T period I allude to, I am now unable to say, but I remember that Arber, who did hunt them afterwards, and whom I found hunting Abercairney's hounds, in Scotland, was with him then in the field, and a very sharp fellow he is. I thought highly of Col. Wyndham's turn-out altogether. The pack seemed just what it ought to have been for his-in partracing country, and his men were wounted on horses quite equal to follow them, as far as horseflesh could do so. But Arber-a capital horseman-assured me, that let a fox rise the hill from the vale, and go for twenty minutes with a burning scent over the downs, the horse had not been foaled that could live with them, and from my experience of the country I believed him. Indeed I remember stating something very nearly confirmatory of this assertion, from my own experience, which is no bad guide; and I ventured to pronounce what are called the Brighton or Lewes downs, to be the most distressing ground for a hunter at "the pace," that I ever have ridden over. Some unpleasant circumstances-unfortunate, I may call them just at this time, when fox-hunting stands in need of all the support that can be given to it-have lately been made public, through the medium of the Sporting Review, respecting a difference between Colonel Wyndham and his brother, the general, having their origin in disputed claims to country. I enter not into this subject for two reasons. First, because it is not within my province so to do; and in the next place I am aware that any comments that may have been made on the conduct of Colonel Wyndham, in the above named periodical, are from a source which I have good reason to know, is not by any means to be depended upon. General Wyndham's hounds, I have never seen, therefore I am silent upon that subject, but I have reason to believe they are kept on a scale deserving of a better country. MR. CRAVEN. I was twice out with Mr. Craven's hounds-commonly called the East Sussex; and having experienced the marked attention of that gentleman, I can at once speak to his courteous and gentlemanlike conduct in the field, which all masters of hounds may be assured is of no small price, and of no small value, as regards the permanent security of their foxes. To compare this pack with Colonel Wyndham's, at the period of my seeing both, would not be favourable to it, at all events, not fair towards the master, inasmuch as he was making his way with a small subscription, whereas it may be imagined that a wide purse was at the service of Colonel Wyndham, and money is a great thing in a kennel. Mr Craven, however, had a very useful pack when I was out with them, and they had the character of being right good hunters. Their huntsman was George Henessey, of whose condition I remember I spoke highly-I mean the condition of his hounds, which was perfect and in proof of it, I remember it was stated by Dashwood, that, soon after the period I allude to, they killed ten and a half brace of foxes, in twenty-three days' hunting. I never met with many men more zealous in his calling as a master of hounds, than Mr. Craven, and I have often lamented that he had not a better country. To his own personal exertions, however, are those who live in it indebted for making it what it is, and overcoming difficulties from which many men would have shrunk. HIS LATE MAJESTY KING GEORGE THE FOURTH. King George the Fourth, was a master of foxhounds before my hunting career commenced, therefore in that capacity I can only speak of him from what I have heard-namely, that he had as good an eye to a hound as he had to a horse, but that from the late hours he kept, he was considered a slack sportsman. My informants on these points, were the celebrated Billy Butler, who hunted a good deal with him in Dorsetshire, and the equally celebrated Loraine Smith, who sold his harriers to his Majesty, and which I one day saw in the field, hunted by Mr. Davis, the present royal huntsman, who took them into the field, by his Majesty's command, on the intermediate days of staghunting. They were at this time (the season 1824) strengthened by another pack purchased of the late Lord Maynard, and as they were equally clever in appearance, they were, jointly, allowed to be perfect of their kind. With his Majesty's stag-hounds, I hunted a few times, and thought nothing of that description of hunting could be better done, than when the hounds were under the management of his master of the buck-hounds, Lord Maryborough, who appeared pre-eminently fitted for his post. As for their huntsman, Mr. Davis, nothing need be said of him, inasmuch as his character is established as a pattern for all who may succeed him in the office he so ably fills. I saw one run with the hounds of George the Fourth, that I am not likely to forget. Davis tired three horses ;* my own was three days at Reading before he could be removed to his own stable, only twelve. miles distant; and as I was retnrning from the field with Lord Maryborough, we overtook the horse of one of the hardest riders in England, then in the Blues, so beaten, that dispite of our directions to the groom as to the treatment of him, he did not outlive the day. And a singular fact marked the proceedings of this day, The start was everything that was bad, the deer ran short, and the hounds were unusually slack. And thus things went on for at least the first hour, when they gradually began to mend, and the last hour or so was a punisher. Now how was this to be accounted for? We were never far from our deer, there * The third horse was borrowed of Mr. Sullivan, whose stables were passed in view. fore nothing can be said on that subject. Was it then that the scent changed so suddenly as to enable hounds to drive it at twelve o'clock, whereas they could scarcely hold on with it at eleven? Or was it change of soil? These points are worthy of consideration, and to my mind this one question remains to be solved;-if blood is so essential to the well doing of hounds, as some believe it to be, how was it that the pack in question, at first appearing little to care what became of their deer, should, after an hour and a half's work, set about him in earnest, and drive him for ten miles an end, without the hope of having a taste of his haunch at the end? My own view of the case is this. The pace began to mend after we crossed Bulstrode Park (in which, by the bye, one of our field broke his arm, by a fall over timber), and got better and better as we got into a richer country, which makes good the opinion of the old Dorsetshire huntsman-that "it aint the notion of eating their game that makes hounds run hard to catch it, nor the fault of the hounds or their huntsman, if they don't catch it, it's the weather that does it ;" and it likewise confirms the assertion of the philosopher, namely, that "those who would partake of the pleasures of the chase, must ask permission of the heavens." George the Fourth commenced his career as a master, in 1798, when he resided at Critchill, Dorsetshire, having at that time a pack of small fox-hounds, but not being so efficient as he wished them to be, they were parted with at the end of the first season. His Majesty then purchased a very fine pack of Mr. Calcraft, but being hunted by a man of the name of Richman, who was not equal to the task, they did not sustain the superior character they enjoyed under the able and judicious management of their former master, who was esteemed one of the best gentlemen huntsmen that had appeared up to the date of his appearance in that, then rather novel, character. This establishment was also of short duration, having been broken up in 1800, when his Majesty left Dorsetshire. He had subsequently a stag-hunting establishment at Kempshot Park, Hants, but as I do not here treat of stag-hunting, I have nothing to say on that subject. THE LATE DUKE OF CLEVELAND. FEW men have done more honour to fox-hunting than the late Duke of Cleveland did, and through a long course of years. His having gone through the laborious task of hunting his hounds throughout so many seasons nearer forty than thirty I should say-at once proves that his passion for the sport was really in-born; and to his duties in the field he also added those of the kennel, always feeding his hounds himself, and in a truly workmanlike manner. Then another proof can be adduced of the duke's love of fox-hunting, and likewise of his wish that others should profit by his experience. Let the day's sport have been what it might, a detail of it was written by his own hand ere he |