A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE Hoo took the hounds, and built the magnifi- cent kennels and stables on the site of the old ones at Kennesbourne Green. They are said to be ' the best in Europe, bar none.' Mr. Leigh's pack had been for forty years care- fully bred. Mr. Delm6 Radcliffe only re- tained fifteen of the fifty couples he took from Mr. Sebright, recruiting them largely from the Fitzhardinge blood, and left a pack of sixty couples as near perfection as was pos- sible. They did not deteriorate under Lord Dacre, who judiciously took for some seasons the Belvoir draft. They were during Mr. Leigh's mastership still what hounds should be, and Ward brought them out in condition, reflecting much credit on his system of hound management. During Mr. Leigh's too short reign hunt- ing flourished, as the following quotation shows : ' On all sides foxes are well pre- served and plentiful on the south and south- west by Lord Verulam, Mr. Halsey, Mr. Crawley and Mr. Leigh ; in the centre, by Mr. Hale of Kingswalden and Lord Dacre ; on the east, by Lord Cowper and Mr. Abel Smith ; on the north-west, by Lady Cowper at Wrest Park, and by the Duke of Bedford at Woburn, adjoining the grass vale at Tod- dington termed the " Elysian fields." On the extreme north, between Mr. Richard Marsh of Little Offley, Captain Young of Hexton, and Mr. Delmd RadclifFe, whose properties join, the animal is ever in abundance, espe- cially of late years, since they have been joined by Mr. Sowerby, who since his acces- sion to Putteridge Bury has shown foxes together with pheasants in numbers.' 1 On the death of Mr. Gerard Leigh, in 1875, a committee was formed to take over the hounds, consisting of Lord Dacre, Cap- tain Young of Hexton, and Colonel Somerset of Enfield Court. In 1879 Lord Dacre re- signed, and his place on the committee was taken by Colonel Blake of Danesbury. Two years later Captain Young resigned ; and in 1885 the joint masters and Bob Ward the huntsman resigned, and Captain Peacock be- came master. Captain Peacock was a very keen sportsman. He lived at the kennels, and hunted the hounds himself with consider- able success until 1888, when he was suc- ceeded by Mr. E. R. Sworder, who had been master of the East Kent Hounds. He brought some good hounds with him and improved the pack. At first he hunted one of the packs of hounds himself, and Charles Harris, who had been for many years first whip to old Bob Ward, hunted the other pack until 1 Baily's Magazine (1873), P- z ^2. William Wells came as huntsman in 1893, when, owing to an accident, Mr. Sworder had to give up hunting the hounds himself, but continued the mastership until 1898, in which year Mr. Fenwick Harrison of Kings Walden, Bury, Hitchin, became joint master with Mr. Charles Part of Aldenham, the former look- ing after the north part of the country and the latter undertaking the southern part. They are the present masters of the Hert- fordshire Hounds. William Wells is still the huntsman, as he has been since 1893. He ' s a most capable man, both in the kennel and in the field, and the pack has been greatly improved during his time. He has had great experience, first as whip to George Carter with the Milton Hounds, then as first whip to Gillard with the Belvoir Hounds, where he was well known as a good rider, having beautiful hands and seat on a horse. He afterwards be- came huntsman to the Puckeridge Hounds under Mr. Gosling, and from there he came to the Hertfordshire. He has shown very good sport, and many good runs have been enjoyed under his patient management of the hounds in the field. Joseph Davis is still whip ; his knowledge of the country is very great, he having held that position for the long period of twenty-eight years. Out of many good runs with the Hert- fordshire of late years, since Wells has hunted the hounds, one of the best was from Coomb Wood, Shenley, on April 2, 1897, through High Canons and Dyrham, the fox being killed in Totteridge Park fifty minutes without a check, all over the finest grass country. Another was on Jan- uary 17, 1900. The fox was found out- side The Meg, Hexton, and ran for three hours in two large rings, when he was given up at Higham church, as all the horses were dead beat. THE PUCKERIDGE HOUNDS This country was first called by its present name in 1802, when Mr. Sampson Hanbury built kennels at Puckeridge. In the eigh- teenth century it was called the Hertfordshire or Mr. Calvert's. Its early history is out- lined by 'Arundel,' writing in the Field of February 2, 1889. 'So long ago as 1725 a few hounds were kept at Cheshunt near Brox- bourne, one of the proprietors being Mr. Cal- vert, an ancestor of Mr. Felix Calvert of Fur- neaux Pelham, and of Colonel Calvert, late master of the Crawley and Horsham Hounds. These hounds Mr. Calvert subsequently pur- chased and moved to Albury, where he was 352
