SPORT which is worthy of record. It is said of him that he killed his first Tickham fox at Tong on the farm belonging to Mr. T. Bensted, the ' Father ' of the hunt, and that he made it a practice of going to Tong for his first fox of the year in each succeeding season. Further than this he is credited with having killed an early season fox, if not the very first, within the parish during every year of his mastership. On Mr. Rigden's death the hunt committee, with Lord Harris as chairman, met — for the first time in twenty years — at the Bull Hotel at Sittingbourne, and accepted the offer of Mrs. Rigden to lend the horses and hounds to the country for the season. Mr. George P. Elystan Evans, late master of the Cam- bridgeshire, was asked to accept the master- ship, which he agreed to do in conjunction with Mrs. Rigden. Since that time the Tickham Hunt has been carried on under that arrangement, a guarantee of some )£i,6oo to ;fi,8oo per annum being made towards the expenses of maintenance. Latterly, there have been resignations and rumours of resignations, but up till 1907 no definite change in the establish- ment of the Tickham Hunt has been made. At the last meeting of the committee, on 4 December 1906, the joint masters tendered their resignation for the second or third time, and a resolution was carried asking them to reconsider their decision. When Mr. Evans took over the Tickham pack he found it one of the best in the king- dom, and so it has been maintained up to the present time. The pack is full of Bel- voir and Wanvickshire blood, with charac- teristic features of good back ribs, shapely necks and broad powerful shoulders. Much of the good blood in the kennel is due to the influence of that good sire Nestor, ^ whose ^ Sir Humphrey F. de Trafford, bart., The Foxhounds of Great Britain and Ireland, 1906. Nestor's pedigree is as under : — NESTOR, 1900 00. (Weathergagc,i8;6
- I Gratitude, iSSo
(Syntax, iS8o (Needful, 1877 [Milton Solomon, 1879 ( Handsome, 1882 j-Belvoir Falliblv, 1874 (.Ro.y, 1877 (Weathergage, 1S76 Gratitude, 18S0 Oakley Rende ,Belvoir (■Gamble r, 18S Nomin; A, Warwick- shire 188S Needy, .88+ Nailer, .894 Huntres; l-Harper, ,885 1888 "V..,. 1S80 Stella, 1893 (Belvoir Game- boy, 18S4 Anxious, 1886. {Oakley Render, 18S3 Oakley Angrv, 1879 -(Selim, 1878 (Senseless, 18; lRhapsody,.88.||',^;-;',;«;5 /-Milton Somer-JSelim, 1878 ..( set, 1883 t Senseless, 1879 progeny are to be met with in many other noted kennels. At the present time the Tickham Hunt possesses fifty couples of hounds, which Mr. Evans hunts himself. They meet three times a week. The country hunted is about twenty- five miles from east to west, by fifteen miles from north to south, and on the west the West Kent territory forms the boundary. On the east the East Kent country is touched, and on the south that of the East Sussex, together with a large area of land that is not hunted by any pack of foxhounds. Plough-land is chiefly met with, as well as a considerable tract of large woods, but pasture is on the increase nearly everywhere. There is plenty of jumping of a moderately stiff order, and wire is plentiful, but possible of negotiation at marked places. Most of the country is hilly, and a fast, stout horse is the best. Fox hunting was pursued in the eastern portion of Kent probably quite as early as in any other part of the county, but nothing in the way of reliable record can be discovered previous to the time of Sir Henry Oxenden of Broome Park, seventh baronet, the possessor of a noted pack of ' spayed ' bitches, with which he hunted the country until about 1828. He was succeeded by Sir Brook William Bridges of Goodnestone, fifth baronet (afterwards Lord Fitz-Walter of Woodham Walter), and later by Mr. William Deedes of Sandling Park, who carried on the pack until 1832. At the expiration of Mr. Deedes' master- ship Mr. James Drake Brockman of Beach- borough, of whom it may be said that he was the real founder of the East Kent Hunt, came into power, and controlled the country for no fewer than thirty-eight years. Mr. Brockman's period of mastership began at a time of many difficulties ; but after several disappointments and some oppo- sition, he succeeded in overcoming the prejudice against fox-hunting that existed in some quarters, and popularized the sport among the tenant farmers of that part of the county. At the same time he concen- trated his attention upon the formation of a really sound pack, and finding foxes rather scarce, went to the trouble of importing some from across the Channel. The interests of game-preserving in this part of Kent were being more and more jealously guarded every year during Mr. Brockman's mastership, but so tactful was he that foxes soon began to flourish and blank days became fewer every season. A good story is told of Mr. Brockman in Sir Humphrey de Trafford's magnificent 481 61
