xt7dv40jx733 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7dv40jx733/data/mets.xml England Banks, Fred S. 1892 116 pages, 2 unnumbered leaves of plates, illustrations, 23 cm. Call Number: NE960.3.G7 B36 1892 Imperfect: water damage to covers; back cover unhinged (Special Collections copy).Donor: Manger, 11/1976 books NE960.3.G7 B36 1892 English Published for Walter Gilbey by Vinton Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection Sporting prints -- England -- Indexes Printmakers -- England -- Indexes Sporting magazine -- Indexes Illustrated periodicals Sporting magazine Index of Engravings With the Names of the Artists in the Sporting Magazine From the Year 1792 to 1870, [1892] text Index of Engravings With the Names of the Artists in the Sporting Magazine From the Year 1792 to 1870, [1892] 1892 1892 2024 true xt7dv40jx733 section xt7dv40jx733  

  

  

 

 IJZL

L

/

2/0

,
”mu, #me
,1. i ,

STY/C)
77% 07b /Zl./ZQ507‘

y/

J

5
My

4%

H15”
Ag

G
(5/1//z:

0M 6

r

y"

4
.

(J

 

 l
A
w
,

 

  

 PICTURES IN OLD SPORTING
MAGAZINES

YEARS 1792 TO 1870

 

  

 

 INDEX

OF

Engravings With the Names of the Artists

IN THE

SPORTING MAGAZINE

From the Year 1792 250 I870

CONTENTS
PAGES
King George III. going out with his Stag-hounds Facing/16717”
Preface I

History of “Sporting Magazine” by Hon. Francis Lawley 3 to IR

Address to the Public (reprint) which appeared in the first

monthly number, published in October, 1792 19 to 24
Index of all the Pictures in the 156 Volumes 27 to 82
Index of all the Pictures of Horses, Race Horses, &c. 83 to 04
Index of Names of the Artists 97 to l 16

PUBLISHED FOR WALTER GILBEY, Esq, BY VINTON 8; CO., LIMITED,
9, NEW BRIDGE S’I‘REE’I‘, LL‘DGATE CIRCUS, LONDON, E.C.

 

  

 

; ’é.‘¢.ln§.‘ ii. 1 \yl .,

A ,. ,3? 11.}: 1:11.. 1.35.. 15,1 4

i... .1357...

 
 

 ya

f¥ L.‘ ', '4 "w ,v i

PREFACE

___+ ___

N printing and publishing this Index to the Engravings of
the “Sporting Magazine,” most carefully compiled by my
friend Mr. Fred. S. Banks, I do so in the confident conviction
that it will prove of incaloulable value to all who are fortunate
to possess copies of that interesting publication. In its 156
volumes will be found numerous pictures of historical value; many
of them celebrated horses, hounds, portraits, and sporting subjects
of interest.

The first monthly number of the “Sporting Magazine” was
published in October, 1792, so that the publication or" this
Index takes place on the one hundredth anniversary of the
Magazine’s publication.

The picture facing the title page, “His Majesty George III.
going out with his Stag—hounds,” appeared at the commencement
of the first number, published October, 1792. It has been carefully
reproduced by the well-known engraver Mr. F. Babbage. The
address to the public, which also appeared in the first number,
is reproduced, and Will be read with interest.

The sixtmm pages of “Introduction” were kindly written by
my friend The Honourable Francis Lawley. They give a brief
history of the Magazine, and of English sports, as no greater
authority could have done.

There are 156 Volumes of the “Sporting Magazine,”
commencing October, 1792, and continuing till December, 1870.
During this period of 78 years many rival magazines came
into existence, namely, “The Sportsman,” “New Sporting
Magazine ” and “Sporting Renew.” They all merged eventually
into the “ Sporting Magazine.”

WALTER GILBEY
ELSENHAM HALL, ESSEX,

October, 1892.

 

 In. %

 

{415%}

35:31...“

 
 

 Index of Engravings in the Sporting Magazine
from 1792 to 1870

 

 

INTRODUCTION

BY THE

HON. FRANCIS LAWLEY;

,4 +_ _,

T has long been known to modern students of the reign of
George III. that original information upon out-of—the-way
subjects contributed by contemporary hands towards the close of
last century and at the beginning of this is of far more value than
the derivative works of historians composed within the last fifty
years. English literature has always been less fecund than its
French analogue in “Memoirs ” and “ Ana ” of the character and
description which make the Duc de Sully, the Cardinal de Retz,
and the Due de St. Simon famous above all other writers of their
kind. It is the fashion, for instance, in this country to speak of the
“Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delany ”——six volumes
of which were edited and published in 1861 and 1862 by her niece,
the late Lady Llanover, as bearing a great resemblance to the far
more successful work of the Duc de St. Simon. No one, however,
can have read the “Memoirs” of the French Duke, even in the
abridged form given to them by their English translator, Mr.
Bayle St. John, without recognising at a glance his vast superiority
to his English imitators, with the solitary exception of Horace
Walpole, who was undoubtedly more like to St. Simon than any
other English author.

THE FIRST THREE SPORTING MAGAZINES.
Without dwelling further on the “Memoirs” of the two great

European neighbours whom the Channel, or “silver streak,”
divides, it will be found, on examination, that three magazines

 

 

 

 as... . ,

<.._ 1,14,.

«m

“mm... -m- -

 

M...“

’ ,. WM w‘w w we

fly...

 

,4 «gm»

_ rm<

_ m... —.- ”pm-WM” N?

 

 

4

which made their first appearance in England during last century,
and ran deep into its successor, are mines of wealth to those who
search diligently for nuggets in their comparatively neglected soil.

THE GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE.

I. The first of these three periodicals is the “Gentleman’s Maga~
zine,” which commenced in 1781 and came to a close in 1878. For
general purposes it is impossible to over-estimate the value of this
far-reaching and comprehensive serial. It has lately advanced
greatly in price owing to its abundant contemporary comments
upon the war between Great Britain and her thirteen American
Colonies, which raged from 177 G to 17 83) There was a time when
all the volumes of this monumental periodical might have been
purchased for a few sovereigns. At present, an American customer
who approaches any well-known bookseller in the West-end of
London with a view to picking it up in its entirety, will be
fortunate if he gets it, even in these depressed times, for less than
one hundred poundsfi‘ Numerous “Selections” and “ Compila-
tions ” have already been made from it as many indeed as there
have been Roman palaces built out of that vast ruin, the Coliseum.
The Rev. J. Walker began, in 1811, with his four-volumed
“ Selections of Curious Articles from the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine.’ ”
Within the last few years Mr. George Lawrence Gomme, F.S.A.
(one of our most distinguished arch"

.eologists and antiquarians), has
undertaken to edit, under the heading “ Sylvanus Urban Redivivus,"

what he calls the “ ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine’ Library,” of which seven
volumes have already appeared, and eight more are promised. The
last—“ On Romano-British Remains ”——is as entertaining as a
novel, and reveals that in the use of cosmetics and personal adorn-
ments the fair daughters of Imperial Rome, who found their way
fourteen centuries since to these barbarous Islands, were not a whit

inferior in resourceful ingenuity to the professional beauties of
modern times.

 

 

 

* This statement is not invalidated or weakened by the fact that a copy of
the “Gentleman’s Magazine” was knocked down in June, 1892, at Messrs.
Sotheby’s Rooms, for £25 10s. This copy will probably be held until a

purchaser at the higher rate, or thoreabouts, is found.

 

 

 

 

 

 5

THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

II. We come, secondly, to the “European Magazine, and London
Review,” in eighty-seven volumes, extending from 1782 to 1825.
No explorer has yet done in connection with this second periodical
what Mr. Lawrence Gomme is accomplishing in connection with its
more aged contemporary. Suffice it to say that in the realms of
diplomacy, historians like Sir W. N. Massey and Mr. Lecky have
obtained more light from the “ European Magazine” than from any
other similar source.

THE SPORTING MAGAZINE.

III. “The Sporting Magazine,” which, in the following pages, is
about to be recommended to the English reader under a new aspect
by the never-failing enterprise, generosity, and industry of Mr.
Walter Gilbey, comes, thirdly, under our notice. It is often said
that modern frequenters of our racecourses, to whom, in “The
Druid’s” phrase, “6 to 4 on the field, and 5 to 2, bar one, is
sweeter music than that of the spheres,” have no taste for sport-
ing chronicles when they treat of memories beyond their ken, and
with no bearing upon their pockets. Nothing, in our opinion, can
be further from the truth than allegations of this kind. The
demand for Turf Histories, Turf Memoirs, Hunting Sketches,
and authentic Lives of celebrated racing, hunting, and sporting
characters is absolutely illimitable. Not dissimilar is the eager-
ness with which contemporary pictures of famous racehorses
are competed for under the hammer, or by private agreement,
whenever an opportunity occurs of purchasing a masterpiece by
G. Stubbs, R.A., by Wootton, Sartorius, Morland, Laporte, Dalby,
J. F. Herring, Ferneley, Abraham Cooper, R.A., B. Marshall,
J. \Vard, RA, E. Corbet, Charles Hancock, P. Reinagle, R.A.,
Clifton Tomson, and Harry Hall. There is, again, no lack of
enterprising and sagacious commercial buyers, like Mr. Agnew,
Mr. Eugene Benjamin, Mr. Vokins, Mr. Toovey, Mr. F. Harvey,
and Mr. J. B. Muir, who are always on the look-out for sporting
pictures if possessed of merit and with good credentials.

SALE or MR. RICHARD WATT’s PICTURES.

Early in May last fifteen pictures which had hung for sixty or

 

'.
If
t,
g
i
i
‘;
i
’3»
Y'.
+2
15.
g.
i.
f,
;,

 

  

.. “yaw...“ ,_.H

g
E
E
E
i

 

.,~.-~q._., . _‘ ...v.,,...,—V—r-.~kwr,m—»

 

 

 

5:}
§~
,,
g,
3

S

.

l

6

seventy years at Bishop Burton Hall, near Beverley, in Yorkshire——
the home of Mr. Richard Watt, who won the Doncaster St. Leger
four times—came into the market at Messrs. Christie’s Rooms,
King Street, St. J ames’s. Among them were included portraits of
Gimcrack, by Stubbs ; of Mandane and Altisidora, from the brush
of Clifton Tomson; of Manuella, winner of the Oaks, and of her
son Memnon, winner of the St. Leger, together with that of Tramp,
sire of St. Giles and Dangerous, winners of the Derby, and of
Barefoot and Don John, winners of the St. Leger——all these last-
named pictures being by the elder Herring. Lastly, there was the
life-size portrait by Dalby of the mighty Blacklock, with
his renowned big head and Roman nose, which seemed to dwarf
into insignificance his beautiful neck, sloping shoulders, and loins,
although from the latter have sprung such worthy descendants as
Velocipede, Voltaire, Queen of Trumps, Charles XII., Hornsea,
Voltigeur, Vedette, Galopin, St. Simon, and Donovan. For the
above pictures, with the exception of those bought for young Squire
Watt (great nephew of the breeder of Blacklock), the competition
was proportionately as great as it is at Newmarket every July
for Mr. Chaplin’s yearlings, many of which are full of Blacklock
blood. The price given by Messrs. Vokins, acting on Mr. Walter
Gilbey’s account, for Stubbs’ Gimcrack exceeds that paid in public
for any other horse- portrait within living memory.

HISTORY OF THE SPORTING MAGAZINE.

Such incidents as we have now recounted rebut the idea that old-
time racing and sporting is out of date and neglected by a heedless
and frivolous generation. In the following pages it is proposed
to give a short history of the “Sporting Magazine,” the
engravings of which Mr. Banks has catalogued in the accompany-
ing little work, which contains (1) Index of Engravings; (2) Index
of Names of Horses, including Racehorses; and (8) Index of
Names of the Artists. For the purposes of his compilation
Mr. Banks has found it necessary to ransack one hundred and
fifty-six volumes of the “Sporting Magazine,” which, like its
congeners, the “ Gentleman’s Magazine” and the “European
Magazine,” is full of interesting matter to those who care to
exhume it.

 

 ”/4

7

JOHN VVHEBLE, FOUNDER OF THE MIDDLESEX JOURNAL.

The history of the periodical in question is as follows :——Towards
the close of last century there lived in Warwick Square, off St.
Paul’s Churchyard, a bookseller named John Wheble, who in his
day acquired no inconsiderable notoriety by connecting himself with
Wilkes, Horne Tooke, and other fiery politicians of the same type,
whom, with more zeal than discretion, he supported and championed
in a paper called the “Middlesex Journal,” of which he was
owner, editor, and publisher. In this sheet, which, like Melchisedec,
was “born out of time,” Mr. Wheble endeavoured to give full
reports of Parliamentary debates in the place of such abridgments
as Dr. Johnson and others had essayed to concoct on slender infor-
mation derived from hearers of speeches made in Parliament, and
repeated to outside scribes, who took care that their own friends
should not have the worst of the argument. Not content with
writing and printing his own articles, Mr. Wheble occasionally
admitted to his columns satirical sketches and jaw d’esprit
from the scurrilous pens of Horne Tooke and Wilkes. Natur-
ally the “ Middlesex Journal” and its venturesome editor were
not long before they got into trouble. At that time the liberty
of the Press, interpreted by such Judges as Lord Eldon and
Lord Ellenborough, was nothing more than a name. Even the
great Lord Mansfield once remarked from the Bench that the
newspapers, which some counsel had extolled in Court, “would
before long write the King from off his Throne, the Bishops from
out of their Sees, and the landlords from out of their estates.” It
was to be expected, therefore, that Wheble, when ordered to appear
at the Bar of the House of Commons, would find the way of the
transgressor made peculiarly hard in his case. At this critical
juncture Wilkesathe most impudent and irrepressible of dema-
gogues—advised Wheble not to obey the Speaker’s order com-
manding his presence at the Bar. The House of Commons
immediately offered a reward for his apprehension, but the
secret of his hiding-place was well preserved, and Wilkes
succeeded before long in inducing the House to condone the
offence of his protégé and client. Such was the general feeling
of rejoicing at Wheble’s escape that the Constitutional Society

 

 g
I
t
t

. v... Waywflms , ..

Q;

.. ,WWMWMW pm . emuwm") "'9'

,_ ,fi-.._.._.. .r.

N ...,..,..v. my, r,~—-.rs,,w¢,,,e,—. “—er . v .w" u -

 

 

., ,wc u..w~mww._~_a- W... ,. r

§

 

8

voted him a gift of one hundred guineas as a reward for his
courage.

VVHEBLE STARTS ANOTHER WEEKLY PAPER—

Before long the delinquent started another newspaper, which he
called the “ County Chronicle.” It was of a very different character
from its lawless and inflammatory predecessor. Leaving Parliament
to its own unreported devices, the “ County Chronicle ” set to
work to accumulate as much rural and agricultural intelligence as
possible in an age when the landed interest was the backbone of
English society. At that time, a journey from London to Edinburgh
entailed infinite suffering and danger upon passengers, who were
exposed for many days and nights to cold, rain, or snow on the top
of a Royal Mail or a stage coach. The provinces knew little about
the metropolis, which then contained a population of less than a
million souls, and seemed to simple country folk, fresh from Norfolk,
Yorkshire, or Dorsetshire, to be the largest and most dangerous
agglomeration of human beings ever known upon earth. Wheble’s
new paper, the “ County Chronicle,” was, in fact, the first attempt
ever made to bring together the town mouse and country mouse of
Gay’s famous fable.

OUT or WHICH SPRINGS THE SPORTING MAGAZINE.

Its success soon led to evolutions little foreseen by its originator.
Assisted by Mr. Harris, another bookseller of St. Paul’s Church-
yard, Mr. Wheble brought out, in October, 1792, the first number
of the “ Sporting Magazine.” Although it is but a century since
the periodical in question made its first bid for public favour, few of
those who now live in the midst of countless newspapers—nearly all of
which find room for articles and reports devoted to sporting subjects,
including horseracing, hunting, shooting, boating, athletics and
games of various kinds—can form a just conception of an age which
boasted but one monthly sporting magazine, embracing, in its own
words, “ all transactions of the Turf, the Chase, and every other
Diversion interesting to the man of pleasure and enterprise.”
Following the stilted, and what Americans would call “ hifalutin ”
style of those primitive days, Mr. Wheble, who was his own editor,
proceeded to assure his readers that “ To relieve the mind from the

 

 9

fatiguing studies of the closet, and to preserve the human frame
from those afflictions which a sedentary life often occasions, recrea-
tion and exercise are found essential alike to the disciples of Hoyle,
the votaries of Dian, and the frequenters of N ewmarket.”

WHEBLE CONDUCTS SPORTING MAGAZINE FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.

For a quarter of a century Mr. Wheble continued to conduct his
amusing and, it must be added, manly Miscellany, with no incon-
siderable success. Unfortunately, his descriptions of field sports,
and especially of horse races, took so long before they got into print
that they had ceased to be “interesting to men of pleasure and
enterprise” and to their friends when they appeared. It is not a little
remarkable that towards the close of last century, and at the com-
mencement of this, no reports of horse races were given in the
London daily or weekly papers. The “ Sporting Magazine ” was
but a poor substitute for our modern newspapers, but it is, after all,
the best record that we possess of the early days of steeplechasing,
of battles in the prize-ring when pugilism was in its prime, and of
matches between gamecocks. Its pages were filled with “Crim.
Con.” actions given in great detail; with elopements and duels,
and with stories from which all point and sting have long ago
faded away. One feature which distinguished it should not,
however, be passed over without honourable mention. A really
good racing calendar was added at the end of every volume,
and an attempt was made from the first to illustrate every
number. Thus, the periodical opens with a portrait of George III.
surrounded by his staghounds, after a painting by Stothard,
which is followed by another of Sir Charles Bunbury’s Diomed,
which Mr. Banks’ industry enables us to perceive was from
the brush of an artist named Cook. The same number also
contains “ Archery at Hatfield,” in which the old Marchioness of
Salisbury and a bevy of young ladies are taking part; and it is
supplemented by portraits of two gamecocks, after paintings by
Best, by a sketch of a coursing meeting at Swafi'ham, and by cuts
of Colonel Thornton hawking heron, of pigeon shooting in Windsor
Forest, of the death of young Lord Barrymore, and of a welter
match at Newmarket, between the Duke of Bedford on Dragon

. s, .
."r , , ' ,. »
$3? ‘1 A."

a

,3
V:
g .
“I".
1‘5

gr

1
a

an”: x, - , - 1 , < . M»

’-' ;ifiixfl‘9‘m‘tumm ’54!»

A 4.5 d.»k...~;;:sn

 

 l
g
2
%

 

~i.../ .fl... .mw»..._.»~a~h.,_ r..—

 

' .,I'

 

IO

and Sir John Lade on Clifden, 15 stone each, in which His Grace
was the conqueror.

MERITs OF THAT PERIODICAL.

In that starved and barren age—the much-abused eighteenth
century—the “ Sporting Magazine ” was the first well-organised
attempt to chronicle the recreations which—as the Egyptian rock-
temples show—have always been essential to the young and ardent
in every epoch and stage of human history and progress. Thus far
no one has, to our knowledge, expended so much labour upon the
156 volumes of this interesting periodical as Mr. Frederick S. Banks,
who has undertaken the work as a labour of love. We do not
anticipate that his three Indexes—that of Engravings in the first
place, that of Names of Horses in the second, and that of Names of
Artists in the third—Will find many readers among that illiterate
portion of the sporting fraternity for whom Turf archzoology has few
attractions.

MR. GILBEY’S GENEROUS EXPENDITURE ON THIS LITTLE \Vonk.

Nevertheless, Mr. Gilbey’s heavy expenditure on this little
book will not be thrown away if it engenders in a few thoughtful
minds a desire to know more about the Horse painters who
flourished during the first seventy years of the present century. It
Will also revive interest in the history of the “Sporting Magazine,”
which was the undoubted prelude to “Bell’s Life in London” and
“The Sunday Times ”; to “ N iinrod’s ” books on Hunting, and to
his “Quarterly Review” articles on “The Chase,” “The Turf,”
and “The Road”; to the “New Sporting Magazine,” which
brought Mr. Surtees and his immortal creations, “Mr. Jorrocks ”
and “Soapy Sponge,” into the literary field; and finally, in
1839, to “ The Sporting Review,” to which Major Whyte Melville
and Mr. Henry Dixon, better known as “The Druid,” were the
most successful contributors. The list was swelled in one or other
of the above-named Magazines by such interesting and experienced
sporting writers as the late Lord William Lennox; as the
Honourable Grantley Berkeley; as Captain J. W. Carleton, of
the 2nd Dragoon Guards, whose new dc plume was “Craven”
and occasionally “ Sylvanus ”; as “Cecil,” whose books on

 

 

  

«1-,,

II

Hunting won the approval of Major Whyte Melville; together
with sundry other writers, such as “Paul Pry,” whose notes on
Coaching are frequently quoted by modern compilers of books and
essays on that fertile theme, “The Road.” In two departments—-
Steeplechasing and Coaching—the “Sporting Magazine” is a
storehouse of information, and nothing can deprive it of the credit
which is justly its due—the credit, that is to say, of teaching
“Nimrod” his strength as a writer, and affording space for his
admirable letters on Hunting, which did more for that popular
sport, and for the condition and right management of hunters, than
any other “ ink-slinger ” has ever been able to effect.

DEATH OF JOHN \VHEBLE.

Mr. \Vheble died in the autumn of 1820, at Bromley in Kent, in
his seventy-sixth year, and left the flourishing periodical of which he
had been the founder, to his nephews, the two Pittmans, who
appear to have imbibed something of the life and activity
imported into the literary world by the fall of Napoleon and
the restoration of peace to Europe after twenty years of
convulsed agitation.

HIS SUCCESSORS MAKE TERMS WITH “NIMROD.”

The first act of the new proprietors of the “ Sporting Magazine”
was to enter into relations with “Nimrod,” who, above all other
writers, made the fortune of the periodical. It was no easy matter
to induce Mr. Charles James Apperley, or “ Nimrod,” to join what
he had long regarded and stigmatised as “ a cockney concern.” In
the reign of George IV. it was not the fashion for gentlemen to
contribute to magazines and newspapers. Scholars and politicians,
it is true, had started, at the commencement of the century, those
two great Reviews, “ The Edinburgh” and “ The Quarterly,” which
still continue to flourish, although no longer commanding such
paramount influence as they wielded thirty or forty years since.
Upon lighter themes, however, it would have been useless, about
1820, to ask gentlemen to write, and it must be confessed that
even had they been willing to comply, grace and power with
the pen would almost invariably have been wanting from their
compositions.

 

  

r—M. 7»« WW...

 

 

 

12

“NIMROD” on MR. CHARLES JAMES APPERLEY.

Mr. Apperley, however, was not only a gentleman by birth,
but, what is still better, a scholar by education. He was the
son of Welsh parents, and was born in 1778. In 1792 he
was sent by his father to Rugby, which vas, at that time,
a very hard-drinking and ill-disciplined school, as we know from
“Nimrod’s” stories about his surreptitious visits to the Black
Bear Hotel, whither he was sent at night by bigger boys to
fetch back bottles of brandy, rum, gin, and port wine, with which,
slung to his back, he scaled the wall which surrounded the boarding-
house in which he and his commissioners lived. Upon leaving
Rugby, where he contrived to pick up a pretty accurate acquaint—
ance with several classical authors, he settled down in Merioneth-
shire, and lost his heart to a dowerless young lady, Miss Wynn by
name, whom he imprudently married. “ At that time,” writes one
of his intimate friends, “ ‘ Nimrod ’ was one of the most fascinating
persons ever seen at the covert-side. His figure was perfect
as regards lightness, elegance, and activity; his features were
strikingly handsome; his complexion bright and clear; his
hair dark and curly; his eyes sparkling with humour and
intelligence; and his manner and address most engaging and
attractive.” It is added a little later that, as a young man,
“Nimrod” was “a truly sunny person”——always prompt to
oblige, full of harmless fun, and very alert and ready in
conversation. At first he endeavoured to support himself and his
young wife by turning raw colts into good hunters, by riding them
hard across country at the risk of his own neck, and then selling
them at high prices to rich customers.

77

“ NIMROD’S HUNTING HOME.

Before long he established himself at Bilton Hall, near Rugby,
which had once been the home of Addison, and in the neigh-
bourhood of which nearly every field is what “,Nimrod,” in
his famous “Quarterly Review” article on a run with the
Quorn across Leicestershire, calls “a sea of grass.” To eke
out his scanty means he took to writing a few sketches of runs
and sending them to the local papers, which paid him a guinea

 

H-I-OafiH-mr-O-Aaa

      
 
 
  
   
  
 
 
 
    
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
 

13

a column for his lucubrations. At that moment a friend suggested
to him one day in the hunting field that he would make much more
money by writing for the “ Sporting Magazine ” than in any other way.
In a few days “Nimrod” took his seat on the box of the Coventry
Mail, and on arriving in London sent in his card to Mr. Pittman at
his office in Warwick Square, Paternoster Row. N ot many words
were wasted between them, as Mr. Pittman had been prepared for
“Nimrod’s” call by their mutual friend. A bargain was at once
struck which did credit to Mr. Pittman’s generosity and acumen.
“Nimrod ” was engaged for three years at a salary of £1,500 a
year, with the understanding that, in addition, all his expenses,
when travelling on hunting tours, should be paid by the Magazine
into whose service he had entered. He was to find his own horses,
but all charges incurred for their stabling and feed were to be borne
by the Pittmans. In this way the most accomplished sporting writer
that England had thus far produced was launched upon that career
which enabled him subsequently to gladden the hearts of hunting
men for many generations to come, with that “Quarterly Review ”
article on “ The Chase ” which is still, to our thinking, the best
description of a run that was ever penned.

“NIMROD’S” FIRST LETTER IN SPORTING MAGAZINE.

Reverting to the “Sporting Magazine,” we find that “ Nimrod’s”
first letter was published in its pages in the January number of
1822, preceded by the following “ Address to Correspondents ” 2—-

“ Our present number contains the first of a series of interesting letters
descriptive of the most celebrated hunts in the Midland counties, beginning
with Leicestershire, in the time of the late Mr. Meynell and the Earl of Sefton,
written by a practical sportsman, an eye-witness of the scenes described. In
the succeeding numbers of the Magazine will appear articles ‘ On the Choice
of Horses generally,’ and ‘ On the Condition of Hunters according to the
improved system, by which alone they can keep pace with the present speed
of hounds ’; also, ' Some Remarks on Riding to Hounds.’ These will be
followed up by ‘An Essay on the A rt of Driving, and everything belonging
to the Road.’ ”

ANOTHER or HIS LETTERS.

As the result of these letters was to add enormously to the
circulation of the “Sporting Magazine,” our readers may,

    

 m .AmmfimvaLWM .

m- ”M mm,» ~ H,

_....4.-. New,»

w? “

 

' "’7' .T'(

 

 

~

.‘a:
fit
. g:
.3
t
, L5

 

I
i:
l
i
t

«www, '1' m» ..

.."3 ‘- .4 J

3:"..-

“aw-L

w '9:

 

I4

perhaps, be interested in the following extract from the first of
the series :—

“ Leicester may justly be denominated the Montpellier of hunting
countries: in the eye of a sportsman it is the Vale of Cashmere. Both
nature and art have contributed to render it the country for fox-hunting.
The depth and richness of its soil is favourable to holding a scent, and
to the large size of its rnclosures it is indebted for the general practica—
bility of its fences. The few large coverts which the county contains
afford such room for sport that if a fox once gets away a good run
(barring accidents) must be the consequence. In a quick thing with
hounds a good start is everything; and in Leicestershire it is a man’s
own fault if he does not get it. if a fox live to reach a covert, a check
for a minute or two may take place; but this check is often beneficial
to the sport of the day. Hounds and hoses get a puff, tail hounds come
up, and those who were not fortunate in getting away secure a place.
The fox, finding delays are dangerous, and that he has nothing for it but
to fly, makes his point for some distant earths, the attainment of which
nothing but death will prevent.

“ The first year I was in Leicester'shire was the last of Mr. Meynell’s, and
the first of Lord Sefton’s hunting the Quorn country. So long as foxhounds
and foxhunters are found in England the name of Mr. Meynell will never be
forgotten. It is well known how requisite it is for a master of hounds to
stand well with the yeomen and farmers of his county. They have much in
their power, and to them Mr. Meynell was uniformly civil, and even polite,

“Mr. Meynell possessed a wonderful quickness of ear. Once the hounds
were in a small covert, about one hundred yards from the place where he
stood. Lord Sefton went with the hounds, and stood close to the gorse. A
hound spoke, but cautiously. The alarm was false; there was no fox; and
Lord Sefton rode up to Mr. Meynell, and asked him what hound spoke in the
covert. ‘I think it was Concord,’ said Mr. Meynell. ‘It was not Concord,’
said Lord Softon; ‘he was at my horse’s heels.’ ‘It was either Concord or
Caroline’ (brother and sister, and their first year), replied Mr. Meynell. In
five minutes the point was decided. Raven, the huntsman, came by us with
the hounds. Lord Sefton asked him the question. ‘ Concord, my lord,’ was
his reply.

“Leicestershire never witnessed more splendour than during the period
of Lord Sefton’s hunting it. From 500 to 800 guineas was a common price
for a hunter that could go forty minutes best pace, and even more was
asked and given. On account of his great weight, Lord Sei'tOn was obliged
to get the best of horses, and price was only a secondary consideration. He
had always three out each day for his own riding, so that at the first
symptoms of distress he jumped upon the second horse. Lord Sefton had
one of the best grooms that England could produce. His name was Potter.

 

 

 

__ ”3“.” v,“

 

  

 

W.” .p.‘ i

I.

...4
'1!

His horses were always high in flesh but strong in work. With all these
advantages, it is generally believed that Lord Sefton found himself unable
to get horses that could carry him up to his 31' unds when they went their
best pace, and for that reason he gave them up and took to the road, and
became known as one of the steadiest and most masterly coachnien in England.

“ His hounds were perfect. The celebrated J ohn Raven hunted one pack,

1 .L

and the no less celebrated Stephen Goodall the other. His Whippers-in
were first class. The command huntsman and whippcrs-in had over the
hounds can only be compared to that of a regiment on parade. A whip was
scarcely ever used; and as far as a ' yo—yo-it’ could be heard, nothing more
was wanting to bring them back. A horn was scarcely ever heard to sound.”

DEATH or \VHEBLE’s NEPHEW AND SUCCESSOR.

From 1822, when “Nimrm ” accepted Mr. Pittman’s over-
tures, until 1827, when that able editor died, the “Sporting
Magazine” was at its apogee. Between these years other men of
gentle birth, some of them officers, took so following “ Nimrod’s ”
example, and like him found their way as welcome guests to the
houses and tables of Masters of Hounds, and of country gentlemen
and sportsmen. It was as correspondents or contributors to that
universally popular sporting periodical that they were invited to
visit every hunt