[92] Lyson’s Derbyshire, v.
[93] A payment of £1 in February, 1666–7, “about a horse’s leaping,” is recorded in Starkye’s account-book.
[94] In 1687, the old dog-kennels belonging to Staveley Hall were converted into cottages. See a deed at Hardwick from Conyers Lord Darcy to Thomas Frith, dated 24th September of that year. Country gentlemen in Derbyshire took at this time much pleasure in field sports. In Leonard Wheatcroft’s Elegy upon the death of all the greatest Gentry in Darley Dale who loved Huntinge and Hawkinge, written in 1672, he refers to the cry—
“Of great mouth’d doggs who did not feare to kill
Which was their master’s pleesure word and will,”
“ffarewell you Huntsmen that did hunt the Hare,
ffarewell you hounds that tired both horse and mare,
ffarewell you gallant Falkners every one.”
In these verses he especially mentions Mr. Sitwell’s son-in-law, William Revell of Ogston; in other pieces, written a few years later, he speaks of fox-hunting and horse-racing.