STAGHOUNDS
The place of honour as regards antiquity
among the staghounds of Middlesex must be
assigned to the Lord Mayor's hounds, which
may be regarded as a development of the
ancient privileges with respect to hunting of
the citizens of London which were confirmed
by Henry I in the charter already referred
to. (fn. 11)
It is evident from references to 'The Common Hunt,' or huntsman of the corporation,
contained in the Liber Albus, that these
hounds were a recognized institution in the
fifteenth century, when John Courtenay was
elected to the post; (fn. 12) and in later times,
according to tradition, its meets were frequently held in Lincoln's Inn Fields, St.
James's, and Mayfair. (fn. 13) According to an
account given of the chief officers of the
City by Maitland in his History of London,
written in 1756, the chief business of the
Common Hunt
is to take care of the Pack of Hounds belonging to
the Mayor and Citizens, and to attend them in
Hunting when they please. This Officer's House
allowed him is in Finsbury Fields. He has a
yearly Allowance besides Perquisites. He is to
attend the Lord Mayor on set days. This officer
is Michael Lally, Esquire. (fn. 14)
It is interesting to compare this account with
that given by Mr. Loftie of this official in
1891. In describing the City banquets he
says:
Behind the Lord Mayor stands the 'Common
Hunt,' an officer in a sporting costume with a
jockey cap, all that is left of the old privileges of
the citizens granted to them by Henry I to hunt
in Middlesex and Surrey and as far away as the
Chiltern Hills. (fn. 15)
In the reign of George I, 'riding on horseback and hunting with my Lord Mayor's
hounds when the Common Hunt goes out'
was, according to Strype, one of the favourite
amusements of Londoners. At the close of
this reign and for some years in the succeeding one the Common Hunt was Mr. Cruttenden, appointed to the office in September
1723. Among those who hunted with the
pack was Sir Francis Child, who is described
by Mr. Hore in his History of the Royal Buckhounds as 'fairly rivalling' in the hunting
field Alderman Humphrey Parsons, the most
notable of the metropolitan patrons of the
Royal Hunt, whose reputation as an intrepid
rider 'extended to every part of Europe
wherever hunting men might chance to
congregate.' (fn. 16) Sir Francis Child, as may be
inferred from this description, also hunted
sometimes with the Royal Buckhounds, and
during the reigns of the first two Georges the
Lord Mayor's hounds must have suffered in
popularity from the predilection shown for the
former by
merchant princes of the City, the lawyers, the
doctors, the clergy, and the rich, though humble,
bagman, mounted on the now obsolete 'nag' on
which he travelled on business thoughts intent
throughout the land. (fn. 17)
They were moreover gradually driven from
Middlesex by the extension of London, and
Epping Forest, formerly only occasionally
visited, eventually became the only country
hunted by them. (fn. 18)
In addition to the Lord Mayor's hounds,
Middlesex has at different dates possessed two
other packs of staghounds, both of which
were formed by the enterprise of well-known
sportsmen. One of these, the kennels of
which were at Cranford, was formed in 1824
by the Hon. George Grantley Berkeley, who
was for a time assisted by Mr. Wombwell.
The hounds consisted of thirty couple, almost
all bred at Berkeley Castle, and among them
were two given to Mr. Grantley Berkeley by
Mr. Villebois-Batchelor and Blunder-the
portrait of the latter of which by Cooper
appeared in the New Sporting Magazine. (fn. 18a) The
deer were sent from Berkeley Castle and from
Hampstead Lodge by Lord Craven, and at the
close of the hunting season all that survived
were sent back again to Berkeley Castle,
where five months amongst their fellows
undid the effects of artificial maintenance and
restored their running. They were thus, in
Mr. Grantley Berkeley's opinion, superior to
the generality of those from the Royal kennels,
which were from season to season kept in a
paddock. (fn. 18b)
Mr. Berkeley's hounds hunted twice a
week, (fn. 18c) the central portion of the country
hunted being the Harrow Weald, and
amongst those who regularly attended the
meets were Lord Cardigan, Col. Thomas
Wood and Col. Standen, both of the Guards,
Mr. Smith of Hanwell, Mr. Peyton, Mr.
Charles Tollemache, Col. Parker of the Life
Guards, and Lord Alvanley. (fn. 19)
Owing to the proximity of London the
runs were sometimes attended with amusing
incidents, such as one in which the stag
eventually headed for Hounslow, Isleworth,
Twickenham, and Brentford. Of this run
Lord Alvanley is said to have given the
following description:
Devilish good run; but the asparagus beds went
awfully heavy and the grass all through was up to
one's hocks; the only thing wanted was a landing
net, for the deer got into the Thames and Berkeley
had not the means to get him ashore. (fn. 20)
On another occasion the stag was run to bay
in Lady Mary Hussey's drawing-room at
Hillingdon; and on a third it entered the
kitchen of a house, the wrathful owner of
which said in reply to Grantley Berkeley's
apologies:
Your stag, sir, not content with walking through
every office has been here, sir, here in my drawing
room, sir, whence he proceeded upstairs to the
nursery, and damn me, sir, he's now in Mrs.
--'s boudoir. (fn. 21)
One of the oddest scenes, however, caused by
the vagaries of the stag, occurred when, after
entering London by Regent's Park, a fine one
covered with foam and stained with blood, and
followed by two couple of hounds, one morning
ran up the steps of No. 1 Montague Street, Russell Square. The efforts of Grantley Berkeley
to persuade two young ladies who were looking
out of the window to allow the stag to enter
the hall in order to ensure his capture were
rudely interrupted by their father, who, to the
amusement of the other members of the hunt
and the large crowd that had assembled, told
him that if he did not instantly take 'his
animal away' he would 'send for the beadle.'
The stag was eventually captured by the aid
of some friendly butcher boys. (fn. 22)
Mr. Grantley Berkeley maintained the
sport for twelve years, but the difficulty of
doing so was materially increased towards the
close of this period by the number of men
that hunted with him, the populous character
of the country, and the opposition of the
farmers, whose principal crop, hay, suffered
considerably from the damage done by the
hunt. (fn. 23)
Inclosure after inclosure went on, heath and
common vanished, villas sprang up where gravel
pits used to be . . . and babies cries were heard
on sites that in my remembrance were only waked
by the prettier whistle of the plover. (fn. 24)
The farmers refused to be pacified by
a dinner suggested by Messrs. Norton of Uxbridge,
coursing to all who kept or could borrow greyhounds, and shooting, with presents of game and
occasionally venison.
An action brought against him by a farmer
named Barker, who was represented by
Scarlett as counsel, ended, in spite of his
defence by Brougham, in a verdict for the
plaintiff for £100 damages; and this, coupled
with an offer at this time of the mastership of
the Oakley Hunt, determined Mr. Grantley
Berkeley to give up his pack in 1836.
In 1885 Col.Sir Alfred Plantagenet Frederick
Charles Somerset, K.C.B., on relinquishing
the mastership of the Hertford Foxhounds,
started a pack of staghounds at Enfield, the
kennels of which were at his seat of Enfield
Court. In commemoration of the fact that
the Enfield country had not been hunted
since the days of Queen Elizabeth they were
named the Enfield Chase Staghounds, and the
dress adopted was that of the Elizabethan era
-namely, a red coat with blue lapels and
gold buttons, yellow vest and cap.
Sir Alfred Somerset retained the mastership
till 1899, when he was obliged by ill-health
to relinquish it. The kennels were then removed by his successor, Mr. Hartridge, to Barnet. On the retirement of Mr. Hartridge the
increase of building led to their transfer to
High Canons, near Shenley in Hertfordshire,
the residence of the next master, Mr. W.
Walker. In 1910 Mr. D. D. Bulger became
master; and hounds were kennelled at Pursley
near Shenley. The hunt can therefore no
longer be regarded as being in Middlesex, though
a portion of the county-round Potters Bar
and on to Enfield-is occasionally hunted. (fn. 25)
There are 23 couples of hounds. The
hunting days are Tuesday and (usually)
Saturday, the most convenient places for
attending the meets being Hatfield, St. Albans,
and Barnet. The master is also secretary
of the hunt, the whipper-in of which is
C. Strickland.