“I was third whip to Geoffrey (‘Tim’) Barclay (C.M.W.) during the season 1909-1910. He (Barclay) was one of the very best sportsmen and Etonians I have ever had the fortune to meet. He was the son of Mr. Barclay, the present Master of the Puckeridge Foxhounds, and I had the good fortune also to whip in to him with the T.F.B.[9] at Cambridge before war broke out. He was always very quiet, but entirely thorough when hunting hounds, and was a real good judge of a hound himself. During the War I met him in Flanders, just before he was killed serving with the Rifle Brigade. He was the same as ever, and from every account as good a soldier as he was a sportsman and Etonian. I still have a vivid recollection of a hunt during Barclay’s Mastership. We met at Dorney Village on March 8th, 1910. We found in Thames Big Field and ran nearly to Taplow, and then sharp back parallel with the river past Boveney Church and across Dorney Common to the Sanatorium and over the Golf Links to Cuckoo Weir Bridge. Here the hare swam the river, which was in high flood, and ‘made’ the other bank nearly 100 yards lower down stream. Luckily a punt was handy, and, though we lost more ground (or rather water) than our hare had, Barclay took two and a half couple of his best hounds with him, ‘Warwick,’ ‘Leicester,’ ‘Driver,’ ‘Fairplay’ and ‘Dauntless,’ and killed his hare in the paddock on Windsor Racecourse after a very fine hunting run of an hour and 33 minutes. We had several other good hunts that season, but the one described above remains more vivid than some of the others.
“As regards my own Mastership in 1910-1911. It was through no fault of my own that we had (up till then) a record season and killed 13½ brace of hares in 36 hunting days. The three whips, L. C. Gibbs, W. P. Browne, now Master of Lord Portman’s Foxhounds, and W. Holland-Hibbert, were all experts and just as capable, and probably more so, of killing a hare as I was. The previous Masters, Menzies and Barclay, had between them bred from the best hunting strains and moulded a good working pack, all of which were workers, and this is a great asset in a pack of beagles. No word of praise can be too high for Champion for what he has done for the E.C.H. His position is probably unique, as all past and present Etonian members of the E.C.H. must know, and yet, though he always had his hounds fit and well, and despite the fact that he practically lived with them, he was always able to ‘put hounds on’ to the Master and to render valuable assistance in whipping in and getting some very useful ‘views.’ This is a hard accomplishment to achieve when a kennel huntsman has to feed and exercise hounds, and when the Master and huntsman has very little time to get his hounds to know him well and properly, or to supervise kennel management himself. It was a rare occurrence to have a sick hound in kennel during the hunting season, and the kennels themselves were always spick and span and clean. He was good company always, and I have spent many Sunday and other afternoons in listening to his yarns of hounds and hunts gone by. I recall well one afternoon during an Ascot week when I went up to the kennels. Champion had talked more than usual, and the subject was so absorbing that I quite forgot about Absence, and had to chase Mr. Booker down Keate’s Lane to try and explain my absence. The explanation was accepted. Perhaps Mr. Booker had forgotten that we made rather a mess in his garden where I killed my first hare with the E.C.H.! The kennels at Datchet still must be the best beagle kennels in England.
“There is one point I would like to bring up, though it is no concern of mine. That is the breeding of hounds at Eton. Far too little breeding seems to have taken place always. It is much more interesting and better to breed your own hounds from approved working strains than to be compelled to buy hounds whose hunting qualifications and those of their sires and dams are usually unknown. There is naturally no great incentive for a Master, who can only look forward to hunting hounds one season, to breed a lot of puppies when he may never see them hunt a hare.
“All the same, now the War is over, it is suggested, say for two or three seasons, that every good hunting bitch be bred from, and good stud dogs in other packs used, providing of course there are not good stud dogs within the kennel. Fresh blood is always good, and I know the temptation of using your own best stallion hound too much. There must be many keen subscribers to the E.C.H. who would be only too pleased to walk puppies, and it will add to their keenness immensely to see their own ‘walks’ hunting, and to follow their career as long as they are at Eton. It is far better, I think, to breed hounds to hunt and not to win cups, and a bad motive to sacrifice hunting powers for looks, but it is possible to combine both, and it would be very pleasing for all Old Etonians interested in beagling, and a great credit to the Master of the E.C.H., if he were to produce beagles capable of winning at the annual Harrier and Beagle Show at Peterborough.
“I had one red-letter day during my Mastership. It was from Remenham on February 11th, 1911. A hare was found on the plough near the Park, and after a circle opposite the ‘Bells of Ouseley’ hounds pushed her away towards Wraysbury station, where the railway was crossed. Without a semblance of a check Horton village was passed on the right and the hare swam the River Colne. A fine stretch of grass country lay in front and hounds were now screaming. Past Wraysbury Butts the line lay over the Colnbrook Line to Staines Moor, where our hare squatted near Staines station. Hounds worked up to her, but she kept a straight mask, and leaving Staines town on her right entered one of the big reservoirs there and was drowned three minutes in front of hounds after a wonderful hunt of an hour and fifteen minutes. It was about eight miles as hounds ran and a five mile point. All the hounds were up at the end, as were only the keenest of the field; the hound van had managed to get up to us, and we took as many back to Eton as we could in it and on top of it, while the late Mr. P. J. de Paravicini loaded his pony cart with as many boys as possible. The rest got back to Eton ‘somehow,’ a little late for lock-up perhaps, but it was worth it. I warned m’tutor, Mr. R. S. de Havilland, who was then Hon. Treasurer and Secretary of the E.C.H., that he might have some complaints the next day, and that I was to blame, as I forgot in the excitement of the hunt to send the field home. But nothing happened, and it goes to prove that the E.C.H. field is an orderly and sensible one, which does not take advantage of its freedom but appreciates it and its responsibilities.
“When I was Master I had several letters from the Humanitarian Society, and anonymous ones, no doubt emanating from the same source. The former were replied to after good advice given by the Head Master, Dr. Lyttelton, and m’tutor, Mr. de Havilland. The anonymous ones were destroyed! If hare hunting or hunting of any form is to be stopped, I am sure Eton will be the last to give in. Its advantages are so many and so well known that it would be a waste of time to quote them, but I feel that the ‘kill-sports’ think they have an easy prey in attacking College and School packs, while they practically ignore the many other hundreds of packs of hounds in the United Kingdom.
“The size of the hounds at Eton has always been a great source of discussion. You have only, say, two and a half hours on a short winter afternoon to find, hunt and kill your hare, and while 16 and 17-inch hounds do not allow many people to see them hunting, a 14-inch hound is a little too small to give the Master a fair chance to handle his hare in a short time with a large eager field behind him and maybe a moderate scent.
“I would advocate a 15-inch hound as a standard size for the E.C.H. My father gave me leave to start a small pack at home in 1908. It consisted of two and a half couples kindly given me by Mr. George Miller, originally Master of the Spring Hill Beagles. It grew to seven or eight couples, and during the holidays of 1908, 1909, 1910 we had great fun in Essex, with two sporting farmers to whip in, and killed 27 hares in 65 hunting days. The E.C.H. came home one Christmas holidays, and we had the hound van, which was drawn by two grey carriage horses and looked most imposing. Old Mumford, who had a pub. near Windsor Bridge, and who was the keenest follower of all of the E.C.H., stayed with us these holidays, and was greatly liked by all. The above took place at Braxted in Essex.
“We have still got a pack and hunt the New Forest in Hampshire. The pack belonged to the late Sir Frederick FitzWygram, himself an Old Etonian, and was known as the Leigh Park Beagles. They are a splendid lot. Last year we killed 17½ brace of hares in 44 days. The Forest hares are strong, and we hardly ever killed one under the hour, and it often took two hours.”
One day from Dorney Gate the E.C.H. burst up four hares, none of which were actually chopped. This is a record, and is likely to remain one, at Eton.