Page:The Victoria History of the County of Lincoln Volume 2.pdf/541

Rh to hunt the country four days a week till 1881, when on the death of his wife he retired from the active duties of the office. The Blankney hunt owes its foundation to Mr. Henry Chaplin. He was one of the finest welter weights of his time, a famous hound-breeder, and most popular with the farmers. Henry Dawkins, who had turned hounds for Charles Hawtin during Mr. Chaplin's mastership of the Old Burton, had become huntsman when the division took place, and showed much sport in the new country, having Charles Boxall as first whipper-in. Mr. Henry Chaplin, remaining nominally master, in 1881 made over the responsibilities of office to a committee, with Major Tempest as acting master. The northern portion of the country, as far as the Newark road, was under the new management lent to Mr. Jarvis of Doddington Hall, who hunted it with his own hounds. Major Tempest, who brought with him a high reputation as a sportsman, hunted the country from Coleby Hall for fourteen years (1881–1895), with the exception of the first two months of the season 1885–6, when Lord Lonsdale took his place, bringing with him a fine pack of hounds from the Woodland Pytchley country. Lord Lonsdale's brief connexion with the Blankney deserves mention for the fact that he also brought with him Ben Capell, who remained on as huntsman when Major Tempest resumed office in 1886 and continued in the service of the hunt till 1896. During the later years of Major Tempest's mastership, 1891–1895, the northern portion of the Blankney country, which had been formerly lent to Mr. Jarvis, was hunted by the Burton under Mr. T. Wilson. This area was resumed by the Blankney when Mr. N. C. Cockburn succeeded Major Tempest in 1895.

In 1896 Mr. Cockburn purchased the hounds from the country. Capell in that year left to take service under Sir Gilbert Greenall at Belvoir, and his place was taken by the present huntsman, George Shepherd, who had been turning hounds to Mr. E. P. Rawnsley for fifteen seasons with the Southwold and had learnt his business under that most able amateur huntsman. Mr. Cockburn's term of office was a most successful one; he planted new fox coverts and rented shootings in order to preserve foxes. In 1902 he was joined by Lord Londesborough, who had purchased Blankney Hall; and after two seasons of joint responsibility the masters retired (1904) in favour of Mr. Edgar Lubbock, brother of Lord Avebury, who purchased the pack from Mr. Cockburn on taking office, and showed capital sport during his first season; a fine run on 19 November from Wellingore Gorse to ground near Bloxholm, an hour and three-quarters, being the best. Another good gallop came off on 17 December, an hour and five minutes from Welbourn Low Fields. Arrangements have recently been made by which Lord Charles Bentinck should take over the hounds from Mr. Lubbock and join that gentleman in the mastership.

The Blankney is a purely agricultural hunt; the holdings are large and the farmers men who have been bred and born to fox-hunting. It is for the most part a ditch country, but there are walls in places. There is light plough on the heath and the vale is mostly grass, there being very little woodland, the largest tracts being Stapleford and Haverholme. Lincoln and Sleaford, respectively on the Burton and Belvoir borders, and Newark, from which the Belvoir, Rufford, and Lord Harrington's may also be reached, are the best centres.

Among the hounds brought by Lord Lonsdale was Villager, a most valuable sire. Mr. Chaplin had used Lord Doneraile's blood, also that of the Grove and Milton, with good results. Belvoir sires, among them Rubicon, Senator, and Gambler, made their mark in the kennel, and Brocklesby blood has also been regularly used. The Blankney bitches, which were bought from Mr. Chaplin by Lord Lonsdale, were sold by him in 1887, and for the first few years of Major Tempest's second mastership the entries were largely made up of drafts from other kennels. Belvoir and Brocklesby then began to contribute once more. Shepherd has depended principally on the Belvoir for sires, but two of his own breeding, Ambrose (1898) by Belvoir Falcon (1893) and Cromer (1899) by Belvoir Dexter (1895), have done no little good in the kennel. At the Peterborough Show of 1894 the Blankney representatives were among the prize-winners.

The Blankney Hunt started a point-to-point race meeting in 1886 with two events, one for gentlemen and the other for the farmers of the hunt. The first meeting was run over a course by Coleby, and again in 1894. In 1895–6–7 the course was at Welbourn. Major Tempest, a distinguished Lincolnshire horseman, and at one time master of the hunt, on four occasions rode in the Grand National, twice getting second; his finest performance being on Captain Ball's Hall Court in 1869, The Colonel's first year. In 1873 he rode Pickles to victory in the Grand National Hunt Steeplechase. There were Blankney point-to-point meetings in 1889, 1899, and 1902 at Brant Broughton. The last meeting was held in 1903 at Scopwick.

In no part of the county are its sporting traditions better maintained than in the Southwold Hunt, and nowhere does the field include more tenant farmers. Agricultural depression has laid its hand less heavily on the Southwold country than elsewhere in the county. Some of the farms are thousands of acres in