Page:The Victoria History of the County of Lincoln Volume 2.pdf/531



INCOLNSHIRE is well provided with packs of foxhounds; except in the north-west, which is given over very largely to the preservation of game, and in the south-east, where the unjumpable drains forbid the chase, very little of the county is unhunted. The territory of the Earl of Yarborough stretches from the Humber to a line drawn from Gainsborough to Louth, and up the canal to the North Sea, while the River Trent forms its western limit. The eastern side of the county is hunted by the Southwold, whose boundaries extend from those of Lord Yarborough's country to an imaginary line drawn from Wainfleet to Billinghay and thence northward till the Brocklesby country is reached again. The old Burton country used to extend from Lord Yarborough's boundary to Newark, and so across to meet the Southwold at Billinghay; but that portion below an imaginary line drawn across the country just below Lincoln has been hunted by the Blankney since the year 1871. Below the Blankney comes the Belvoir, whose eastern limits extend to the sea, though they practically go no further than the Forty-foot drain, beyond which lie the unhuntable Fens. The Cottesmore hunt the extreme south-westerly corner. In 1904 a small area on the east coast was lent to Mr. W. A. Ewbank, of Fulstow Hall, by the respective masters of the Brocklesby and the Southwold. There are few coverts in Mr. Ewbank's country, but a great many foxes lie out in hedgerows and stick-heaps and provide sport for the marsh farmers. The Marquess of Exeter hunts two days a week in the neighbourhood of Burghley House, Stamford, by permission of the Hon. G. C. W. Fitzwilliam, and has occasional invitation meets in the Cottesmore and Belvoir territories. THE BROCKLESBY HUNT

and from the outset to the present day a Pelham There formerly existed at Brocklesby a record which showed that in 1 7 13 the packs of Mr. Charles Pelham, Mr. Robert

is



J

Brocklesby is one of the last of the old to maintain its ancient dignity and packs family distraditions. No pack traces its history without Yarborough's, Lord than date persal to an earlier

The

has been master.

Vyner, and Sir John Tyrwhitt were united, and that a year or two later Mr. Pelham assumed sole control. The pack thus established has been in the possession of the Pelham and Anderson families ever since. The hound lists go back to 1746 without a break, and no other pack, with perhaps the exception of the Belvoir, has been so influential in the building

up of the modern

foxhound. There is reason to believe that Mr. Charles Pelham possessed foxhounds somewhere about 1700, and there was probably a pack in existence many years prior to that William Pelham of date, as the third Sir Brocklesby makes mention of 'horse-flesh for

hounds

'

when

Lincolnshire in

referring

to

the

distress

in

a letter to his brother-in-law.

Edward Conway, in 1623. Since 1 7 13, the date of the union of the packs mentioned

Sir

above,

there

have

been

but

of the

Brocklesby.

The

first

seven masters of these, Mr. Charles Pelham, who became sole master soon after 17 13, was born in 1679 ; he was twice married, but had no son, and the family became His sister Mary had extinct in the male line. married Francis Anderson of Manby Hall, and their grandson succeeded to the family estates and the mastership of the hounds on the death

He was created 1763. Arthur Young, Baron Yarborough in 1794. who was no lover of hounds and hunting, wrote of him 'Lord Yarborough has a pack of hounds. If he has a fall, I hope it will be into a furze He is too good to hurt.' Lord Yarbush. borough began to plant the vast and beautiful Pillar Woods, but the work was not completed Some twelve and a half million trees till 1823. were planted, as recorded on the monument called Pelham Pillar, a landmark on the wolds visible from any portion of Lord Yarborough's of his great-uncle in



Before that time the greater part of was unenclosed, there being vast tracts of gorse round Brocklesby. Gradually the land was enclosed and brought to a high state of cultivation ;

country.

the country

493