A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE was burned to death in her dressing room at Hatfield House, on November 26, 1836, at the age of eighty-six. So long as the Hatfield Hounds existed the kennels were at Hatfield. The three suc- cessive huntsmen to the pack were Tyler, Hooper and Wilkinson. They always wore scarlet. But the Hatfield Hunt uniform was unique, being sky blue with black collar and cuffs, and silver buttons bearing the initials 'H.H.' The same button is now worn by the members of the Hertfordshire Hunt, but not the same coat, scarlet having been substi- tuted for sky blue. Lady Salisbury herself wore a bright blue habit with black collar and cuffs and a hunting cap. Amongst those who hunted with the Hat- field Hounds was the Rev. John Knight, rector of Welwyn and fellow of All Souls. He was popular in his parish as well as in the hunting field, and was celebrated for the thoroughbreds he rode, the way he rode them, the lectures he gave on 'Riding to Hounds,' and for the excellence and fluency of his sermons. The Rev. Lord Frederick Beauclerk, vicar of Kimpton and St. Michael's, St. Albans, was another cleri- cal member of the hunt. He rode regularly also in the hunt steeplechases, in full hunt- ing costume, and won the St. Albans steeple- chase with 'The Poet,' a horse that had run third in the St. Leger. The Duke of Wellington was a frequent visitor at Hatfield ' to enjoy the pleasures of the chase.' On one occasion, in 1819, a shepherd was instructed by his master, who objected to the hounds, to fasten up all the gates on the farm. The duke rode up to one of the gates, and the shepherd refused to let him through. The shepherd went home and told his master that he had stopped the soldier that Bonaparte could not. Lady Salisbury gave up the hounds to the Herts Hunt Club in 1828, and they were then renamed the Hertfordshire Hounds. THE HERTFORDSHIRE HOUNDS The country now hunted by these hounds lies in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, extend- ing northwards from Elstree, on the borders of Middlesex, to the vicinity of Bedford, where it joins the Cambridgeshire and the Oakley countries ; and eastward from the borders of the Old Berkeley, for about twenty-three miles, until it touches the confines of the Puckeridge Hunt. The country for hunting purposes has been de- scribed as follows : ' All sorts of fences are encountered in the Hertfordshire country, which varies much in character, some parts being equal to the shires, while other parts are not. There is a fair proportion of pas- ture and large areas of plough and woodland.' There are some coverts that the Hertford- shire now shares with the Old Berkeley and others which it hunts jointly with the Pucke- ridge. The hunt is well supported by covert owners and farmers, many of the latter being regular followers and nearly all good supporters of the hunt. Two, who still ride to hounds, Mr. Hugh Smyth of Quicks- wood, aged eighty-two, and William Smith of Hill Farm, Bower Heath, aged eighty-one (who has never missed an opening meet for the last fifty years), are good specimens of the sporting farmers. The Hertfordshire Hunt Club was estab- lished in 1822, and was at first a social club consisting of most of the prominent inhabi- tants of the county who were interested in any kind of sport. The following are the names of some of the original members who joined the club in 1822 : Lords Dacre, Verulam, Clarendon, Cranborne, Lynedoch, Glamis and Frederick Beauclerk, Sir C. Cuyler, Sir Y. Ouseley, Captains Phillimore, Shawe and Cuyler, Mr. Hale of Kings Wai- den, Messrs. W. Hale, Delm, S. Smith, Farquhar, Paris, G. S. Marten, Thomas Kinder, Woollam, Lomax, Church, Heath- cote, Howard, Gape, Latour, Campbell, Ross, Felix Calvert, Astley-Cooper, Sowerby, Hal- sey, etc. The club met once a quarter and had a dinner, very often at Tommy Coleman's at the Turf Hotel, St. Albans, or at the Sun Hotel, Hitchin. In the year 1828 Lady Salisbury presented the Hatfield Hounds to the club, and they formed thei nucleus of the present Hertfordshire pack. The club now is limited to the principal covert owners in the Hertfordshire country, and to those who may be elected to the club and are full subscribers to the hunt. In 1830 Mr. Sebright, son of the well known Sir John Sebright, became master, with Bob Oldaker, son of Mr. Harvey Combe's Old Berkeley huntsman, as his first huntsman. 1 In 1834 Mr. Delm6 Radcliffe of Hitchin Priory, the author of the well known book The Noble Science, or A Few General Hints for the Use of the Rising Genera- tion, especially those of the Hertfordshire Hunt Club, became master ; and he continued to keep the hounds at Kennesbourne Green, 1 Bob Oldaker was killed by being thrown from a dogcart. 350
