Mr. Assheton Biddulph, M.F.H.
Mr. Assheton Biddulph, Master of the King’s County Hounds, whose portrait we give in this number, was born in the year 1850. He is the second surviving son of the late Francis M. W. Biddulph, of Rathrobin, in the King’s County, now the residence of the Master’s elder brother, Lieutenant-Colonel M. W. Biddulph, late 5th Fusiliers.
Mr. Francis Biddulph, from whom his son inherits his love of hunting, was a well-known sportsman in his day. The late Mr. O’Connor Morris, in his book “Memini,” remarks that he was “one who knew as much as most men about horses of all sorts, hounds, hunting, racing, &c.; in fact, he was an encyclopædia of sport, and could ride to perfection.”
There are not now living many who remember the sad period, sixty years ago, when Ireland was devastated by famine. Speaking of this time, an old hunting man, long since gone to his rest, said to the writer, “I never made such preparation for hunting as I did that year, but before a third of the season was over there was scarcely a pack of hounds in Ireland.” Hunting was only kept going in the King’s County by some energetic gentlemen, as the country began to recover, keeping small private packs and hunting in their own neighbourhood. Of these Mr. Biddulph was one. He was at the same time a staunch patron of the Turf, and owned many good racehorses. It was thus with his father’s pack the present Master was entered to hounds.
In 1869 Mr. Assheton Biddulph was gazetted to the 57th Regiment, the old “Diehards” (now 1st Battalion Middlesex), with which he was stationed for some time in Devonport, where, whenever free from duty, he devoted his spare time to the chase of fox, deer, and otter. Here, too, he made the acquaintance of Squire Trelawney and Mr. Jack Russell, the sporting parson. The regiment afterwards moved to Ireland, and thus gave him the opportunity of again hunting in his native country. In 1873, the battalion being about to proceed to Ceylon, and the outlook seeming to offer but little opportunity of active service, Mr. Biddulph sent in his papers, and began devoting his energies to his favourite sport. For two or three seasons he hunted principally in Galway as the guest of the famous Burton Persse, of whom he always speaks as his principal tutor in the art. At the same time he confesses to dipping stealthily into authorship; as “Vagrant” he used regularly to write hunting sketches in the Irish Sportsman for his old pedagogue, W. J. Dunbar.
Previous to this the late Earl of Huntingdon, then Lord Hastings, had undertaken the task of reviving sport in the district, and hunted both the original King’s County and also the country now occupied by the Ormond Hunt, in Tipperary, till the year 1876. The countries were then separated, the latter being taken over by Mr. W. T. Trench. They were, however, again united in 1879 under Lord Huntingdon, an arrangement which lasted till 1882; and during this period Lord Huntingdon received the greatest assistance from Mr. Biddulph, who acted as both hunt secretary and first whipper-in.
In the beginning of the season 1881–82 political troubles stopped hunting in the district; the hounds were sold, the country was broken up and left derelict for two seasons. In 1884 Mr. Assheton Biddulph faced all obstacles, and, with hardly a fox left in the country, finding hounds, horses, and everything for himself, started to resuscitate the fortunes of the Ormond and King’s County Hunt.
Those who know Ireland understand how difficult it is to keep clear of politics in that country. Mr. Biddulph, however, determined from the first to avoid contentions, and the wisdom of this resolution, though not wholly approved by those with whom he was most strongly in sympathy, has been fully proved by his success. Thus for thirteen years he hunted the great district occupied by both hunts, until in 1897 the countries were again separated, the Ormond being taken over by the present Earl of Huntingdon. Mr. Assheton Biddulph’s success during this period is best testified by the following resolution, passed at the annual meeting of the Hunt on May 5th, 1895:—
“That his many friends and the members of the Hunt accord a cordial vote of thanks to Mr. Assheton Biddulph for his unceasing zeal and untiring energy during his past eleven seasons of mastership, and that they take this public opportunity to express a deep sense of their appreciation of the grand pack of hounds he has bred in the country, the able manner he has managed and hunted them, the fine sport he has shown, the tact with which he has in troublous times overcome many and various difficulties, thus raising to a high position amongst the Hunts of Ireland the standard of the Ormond and King’s County Hunt, over which they sincerely hope he may be spared to preside for many years to come.”
In 1898, on the division of the country and on the occasion of the Annual Puppy Show at Monyguyneen, Mr. and Mrs. Biddulph were the recipients of a very valuable presentation of plate, accompanied by the following address in an illuminated album, which also contains the signatures of about three hundred subscribers, members of every class in the country:
“Your numerous friends in the King’s and adjoining counties in recognition of the lengthened period during which you have hunted the country at very considerable expense, and kept up sport in trying and difficult times when it was abandoned in so many other places, beg your acceptance of the accompanying pieces of plate, and trust that the inscription which they bear (embracing Mrs. Biddulph’s name as well as your own) will show how thoroughly we appreciate the admirable manner in which she has always seconded your efforts to popularise sport by her constant presence and prowess in the field. It will also, we feel assured, gratify you to know that this testimonial has been subscribed to over a very large area, and we all most heartily and warmly unite in hoping that you and Mrs. Biddulph will be spared for many years to maintain the best traditions of the hunt over which you so well preside.”
Since that time Mr. Biddulph has added to the King’s County a large portion of the Queen’s County, which was unoccupied, hunting three days a week with a splendid pack of hounds bred by himself from the best blood in the kingdom. Many of his fine stud of hunters are also home-bred. Among the latter must be mentioned Billy Boy, a gallant grey who carried his master for thirteen seasons. Never was a horse so well known over so large a district. Latterly Mr. Biddulph had given him to his children to ride, and he often carried the Master’s eldest daughter, Miss Kathleen Biddulph.
During all the years he carried Mr. Biddulph any place Billy Boy and his master did not get over or force a passage through no one else attempted. In the dining-room at Monyguyneen hangs a fine oil painting, by Lynwood Palmer, of the Master on Billy Boy, while Mrs. Biddulph, in the same picture, is portrayed on her own favourite of so many years, “Noirine,” now a pensioner, and half sister to Billy Boy.
Outside his own district Mr. Biddulph takes great interest in all hunting matters; he was the originator of puppy shows in Ireland, the first having been held at Monyguyneen in 1887. He was also one of the originators of the Irish Hound Show, at first intended to be held in Mullingar, but the scene of which, in consequence of difficulties, was changed to Clonmel, where it is still held. In his spare time he is a keen angler. He is fond of shooting over dogs, which he always trains himself, but does not care for the modern systems of shooting. A noted walker, no day is too long nor hillside too difficult.
Besides personally looking after all details of his kennel and management of his pack, which he, of course, hunts himself, Mr. Biddulph manages a large farm, from the produce of which the stable is principally supplied.
The family descends from the ancient one of the same name in Staffordshire, which is derived from one Ormus le Guidon, Lord of Darlaveston, Buckinghall, Biddulph, &c., who lived in the time of “Doomsday,” as mentioned by Erdeswick in his history of Staffordshire.
Mr. Biddulph married in 1880 Florence Caroline, younger daughter of the late Rev. Cunningham Boothby, of Holwell Rectory, Burford, Oxon. Mrs. Biddulph is as well known in the hunting-field as the Master himself. The family sporting traditions are carried on by their son, now a boy at Harrow, who must inherit the sporting instinct, descended as he is on his mother’s side from Thomas Boothby, who, as history records, was in the eighteenth century the first man to keep hounds for the purpose of hunting foxes only. Thomas Boothby’s horn is at present preserved as a treasured heirloom in the Corbet family, of Cheshire, into whose possession it passed through intermarriage. We should add that Mr. Biddulph is the second oldest Master in Ireland, having carried the horn for twenty-two seasons.