|
Arborfield
|
|
Memories
  Related sites:
The Cope family of Bramshill House
|
This is from Article 8 of the 30-article ‘Hunting in Berkshire’ series by
J. Hautenville Cope, which was published
in the ‘Reading Mercury’ on April 9th 1921. HUNTING IN BERKSHIRE By J. Hautenville Cope. (ARTICLE VIII.) In the last article it was related how the country was united under Mr. Wheble. Before long a desire arose to revert to a division similar to the one which took place in 1813. To deal with this question, which ere long became a "thorny" subject, a meeting was held on Feb 16th 1852 at the Bear Inn, Reading, with Mr. J. Bligh Monck, of Coley Park in the chair, when the following letter was read from Mr. Wheble, Bulmershe Court, dated December 20th, 1851:- "Dear Monck, - as secretary of the South Berks Hunt, I beg to inform the members that I shall resign the management of the hounds and country at the end of the season 1851. I thank you for your duties in the hunt and I thank those gentlemen who have kindly supported me. I beg to say also that I shall continue to hunt the country as I please and in the way I shall consider the best to show sport. I remain, dear Monck, yours truly, JAMES WHEBLE." It was proposed by Mr. Allfrey and seconded by Mr. Garth, "That the thanks of the country be given to Mr. Wheble for the sportsmanlike and handsome manner in which he has hunted the country for the past two seasons". This proposition was unanimously carried. The next proposal was made by Mr. Garth and seconded by Mr. Standish, of Farleigh Court (now the residence of Mr. Bishop): "That the Garth should take that portion of the country hunted by Sir John Cope, with the addition of the part lying between the London Road and the Thames, and to hunt three days a week, assisted by a committee"; to this Mr. Montagu moved an amendment, which was seconded by Mr. Allfrey: "That this meeting do not sanction any division of the country till every effort has been made to hunt it as a whole". By seven votes to four Mr. Montagu’s amendment was carried; Mr. J. J. Blandy then made the following proposal, having for its seconder Mr. Porcher: "That a committee, consisting of the chairman, Messrs. Thoyts, Allfrey, Garth and Standish, be appointed to consider the best mode of hunting the country as a whole and of finding some gentleman willing to take the hounds for that purpose". This resolution was unanimously carried. The meeting adjourned till March 13th – that is, for a month – when it was expected, or at least hoped, that the committee would make a report. The adjourned meeting accordingly took place at the Bear Hotel on March 13th, but the committee made no report. Mr. Garth made an offer to take the country on the understanding that he would not hunt the Yattendon side or the Oxfordshire side. Mr. Standish and Mr. Conroy, of Arborfield Grange, proposed and seconded respectively that the offer of Mr. Garth’s be accepted, but to this suggestion Mr. Wheble proposed and Mr. Allfrey seconded, "That in the event of any gentleman undertaking to hunt the Yattendon side of the country, Mr. Garth be required to give up to them the country west of the Loddon". By ten votes to eight Mr. Wheble’s amendment was carried, with the result that Mr. Garth withdrew his offer. The meeting adjourned for a fortnight. On Saturday, March 20th, 1852, Mr. Wheble wrote the following letter to Mr. Monck:- "Bulmershe, March 20th, 1852. "Dear Monck, - As no one has come forward to take the whole country, and as I stated I was prepared to hunt a part, I presume that I still hold the country and I beg to withdraw my letter resigning the country. I beg you to tell Mr. Garth or anyone else who may propose to keep hounds that I intend to hunt the Yattendon country and the Mortimer country west of the Loddon and the Whitewater; that should the Vine still permit me to draw their country, they may hunt on the east side of the Loddon; that as Mr. Cobham’s coverts are near to Farley Hill, they may draw them unless specifically desired not; that I am prepared to give up twenty couple of hounds or as many more as I can spare. Yours truly, J. J. Wheble". The contents of this letter were communicated by Mr. Monck to Mr. Garth, who wrote as follows to Mr. Wheble:- "Haines Hill, Reading, March 25th. "Dear Wheble, - I have received a letter from Mr. Monck on the subject of the division of this country, the purport of which is that you, as former Master of the country, resign the whole and give me what you please. I deny that you can hold that position; but supposing, for the sake of argument, my withdrawal to hold good (which, however, I do not allow), you having resigned the mastership some time ago, having accepted a vote of thanks, and start again in the private position of a gentleman offering to take a country, and having clearly and decidedly resigned, cannot now say, ‘I will be Master of the hounds again' without consulting the gentlemen of the hunt and being accepted as such by them. "Such being the case, I consider you have no right to give me certain portions of the country and to withhold others, and it is not my intention to abide by that arrangement, but to draw the whole of Sir John Cope’s late country this side of the Loddon, Beech Hill, and the coverts we propose to take west of the Loddon near Mr. Cobham’s and Mrs. Willes’ places, unless warned off from doing so by the proprietors; giving up Bulmershe, Mr. Palmer’s coverts at Sonning, Maiden Erlegh and Whiteknights, by which arrangements I hoped, and still hope, that the dispute may be brought to a satisfactory and friendly conclusion. I am, yours truly, T. C. Garth." This letter of Mr. Garth’s created a "great excitement", though now, after the lapse of half a century and more, the whole affair is no doubt forgotten except by a few whose families then were resident within bounds of the country which was in dispute. So great was the "excitement" that the following letter was sent to the secretary of the South Berks Hunt: - "To J. Bligh Monck, Secretary, South Berks Hunt Club, "We, the undersigned subscribers to Mr. Wheble’s hounds, having seen a letter from Mr. Garth to Mr. Wheble in which he states that it is his intention to draw the whole of Sir John Cope’s country this side of the Loddon, request you to circulate the proceedings of the late meetings held at the Bear Inn, Reading, as well as the subsequent correspondence, with a view to place all persons concerned in possession of the grounds of the present misunderstanding preparatory to a future meeting. "E. Gilbert East, H. L. Hunter, M. G. Thoyts, Robert Allfrey, A. Morrison, Darnwood Fowles, S. Bazelgette, G. H. Montague. "28th March 1852". Mr. Monck accordingly circulated copies of the letters already quoted in this article, and at the same time issued the following notice: - "Coley Park, April 6th, 1852. "In compliance with the above requisition I beg to forward you a copy of the proceedings and correspondence. I have since the receipt of the requisition entreated Mr. Garth to reconsider the steps he has taken or to submit to arbitration as proposed by Mr. Wheble, but he has declined doing so. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, J Bligh Monck". So acute did the feeling become, so charged with electricity was the hunting atmosphere, that one sportsman who was a resident in the country which afterwards became Mr. Garth’s sent a challenge to another gentleman, who dwelt in the Kennet valley. "Coffee for one and pistols for two" were not needed, as the challenger thought it prudent to retire to the Continent for a time to cool his ire; he also was persuaded to offer an apology to the person to whom he had sent the challenge. Thus the incident closed without resort to such an antediluvian method of settling a quarrel. Tact, as it always does, prevailed in the end; the country was divided during the year 1852; Mr. Garth took the territory the east side of the Loddon, the other side, the western, fell to the share of the South Berks, of which hunt Mr. Wheble became master till the end of the season 1853-54, when he resigned and Mr. George Montagu became Master for the second time. Commenting on the "division", the late Major Thoyts has very trenchantly observed in his notes on the South Berks Hunt: "It appears to be an open question whether anyone could claim the country west of the Loddon except by permission of the Vine. A matter which neither party seems to have taken into consideration!" In support of his views Major Thoyts quoted an account of the Vine, who at the end of the 18th century met at Loddon Bridge. This run, taken from the papers in my possession, has already been given in a previous article. During the time Captain Mainwaring was Master of the Vine (1832 to 1834), that pack in the season 1833-34 drew Sulhamstead, Grazeley, Mortimer and Butler’s Land to prove their right to this tract of country. Later, that is when Mr. Whieldon was master of the Vine (1835-36), he asked the South Berks to give him a formal acknowledgement that the Kennet side of the country was hunted on sufferance. This request was readily complied with and included the area from Pamber Forest to Pinge Wood. All this district was hunted by Mr. Chute, the founder of the Vine Hounds, till he lent part of it to Mr. St. John and after Mr. St. John had retired Mr. Chute continued the loan to Sir John Cope. This option of Mr. Chute castigated Major Thoyts in his belief that the Vine at the time hunted the country between the Kennet and the Loddon. Mr. Garth thus commenced his long career as a M.F.H., which lasted half a century. Much has been written of this fine old sportsman; no pen, certainly not mine, can do justice to him, either as a Master of Hounds or as a landlord. One of the finest specimens of an English country gentleman, he was beloved and respected by all with whom he was brought in contact, and when he passed away it was universally felt that one had disappeared from our midst to whom the words of Tennyson so well applied:- And thus he bore without abuse, [From Article 9, April 23rd:] Since the last article was published in the "Reading Mercury" of April 16th, I have, through the kindness of a friend, been generously allowed to see some further correspondence which was not amongst the Sulhamstead papers. I wrote that the gentleman who sent the challenge of a duel went abroad, and was made to apologise for sending the challenge. I now find that I was not correct, and I have pleasure in correcting my remarks. It appears that the person who sent the challenge did not go abroad, and that the one who received the challenge was the person who made the apology. A great deal of correspondence, some of a very unfriendly nature, took place between these two people, which gave rise to the incident just mentioned.
With acknowledgements to Berkshire Newspapers Back to main article on 'Hunting in Berkshire'
|
||
 Any Feedback or comments on this website? Please e-mail the webmaster |