Douglas says: “As regards hounds, it is best to insert a notice in the Chronicle at the end of the Football Half to the effect ‘that the Master will be glad to have back any hounds (not belonging to the E.C.H. itself) which were regularly hunted to the end of last season,’ and if he thinks he will want more, it will be found better for him to ask fellows who, he thinks, know a good hound when they see one, to bring any they can, rather than to issue a general invitation to the school. If he does the latter he will probably find himself overwhelmed with every description of cur under the sun.”
There was some discussion as to who should succeed Douglas as master. The present Lord Hawke was approached, but declined in favour of his friend A. H. Beach, who had a pack of beagles at Basingstoke. This is what he says:
“Archie Beach and I were great pals, and on being offered the mastership I said he must take it on as he had a pack of his own at Basingstoke, and would make a much better huntsman. He was an artist at his job, and we had a very good season.”
This season, 1879, was remarkable because the officials of the E.C.H. adopted a distinctive dress for the first time. R. D. Anderson, in the letter inserted above, claims that he introduced the brown velvet Norfolk jacket which became the hunt uniform until 1904. A. H. Beach (now Maj. A. Hicks Beach) says that he asked permission of the Head Master for the master and whips of the beagles to wear a brown velvet Norfolk jacket; the remainder of the uniform was not introduced till later, and the pictures of this time give a peculiar impression of an ordinary school cap and muffler, with dark knickerbockers and stockings of very varied designs, with the rather picturesque brown velvet Norfolk jacket as a quite distinctive feature.
Mr. Gerard Streatfeild writes:
“Your letter recalls an excellent season and many happy recollections. The year I was whip (Beach master) the master and whips assumed the velveteen coat as uniform for the first time. Rupert Anderson the previous season (master, E. K. Douglas), one of the whips, wore a velveteen coat throughout the season and was duly admired; so much so that Archie Beach copied it for the hunt the next season, and it has stuck. At the end of the season we secured two bag-foxes from (I think) Leadenhall Market. The result was not brilliant, the first getting away from hounds and getting into Stoke Park, which at that time was strictly preserved for game, and we heard a good deal on the matter; the second fox refused to run at all and finally took refuge behind a stable gate in Dorney Village, and I have a lively recollection of being told off to collect him from thence, no pleasant job as he was very nasty; he was returned to his bag, and what his ultimate fate was I fail to remember.
“Dan Lascelles (Hon. D. H. Lascelles) carried a whip most of the season, as Hawke (Lord Hawke) did not come out much as he was anxious to win the School Steeplechase, and thought beagling might make him stale. Hawke was offered the mastership before Beach, but declined the honour and selected being first whip.”
On the very first day that Beach took out the beagles a hare began to swim the river with half the pack behind her. She was brought to land by a man in a boat and was killed shortly afterwards.
Beach was one of the few masters who entered in the Beagle Book the names of those who ran well. On one occasion the name of Aikman occurs, now Col. Robertson-Aikman, who has been Master of Foxhounds for five and Harriers for twenty-two years. He won more of the prizes for harriers at Peterborough Hound Show than any one else, and his sideboard is covered with cups.
Of the Eton Masters at this time, Mr. Vidal, Mr. Cockshott, Mr. Marindin and Mr. Bourchier were very kind, the two former on more than one occasion obtaining leave for bill-days, i.e. a bill off boys’ dinner and Absence. Mr. Vidal left Eton in 1881, much to the regret of everyone concerned with the E.C.H. A more loyal supporter of beagling at Eton than he could not have been discovered, and at the end of almost every season’s beagling at Eton till 1881 the masters have entered in the Journal Book a special note of gratitude for his support. While he was at Eton he used to go up and judge at horse shows. Once he travelled as far as Chicago, U.S.A., in order to judge the Arabs at a great American show. After he left Eton he retired to Suffolk, where he bred horses till his death in 1909. He had a large family, and one of his daughters is the Dame at Mr. Stone’s house to-day.