THE ETON COLLEGE HUNT. PART I. CHAPTER I. THE OPPIDAN BEAGLES. It was a manly country-loving boy who first undertook the task of introducing Beagles to Eton; a boy, versed in the etiquette of hunting and devoted to a healthy open air life, who loved a horse and who loved a hound, fond of music and fond of dancing, who spent every moment of daylight in cultivating the instincts of a clean country-bred Englishman. Edward Charrington is unfortunately dead. He died in 1894, but he left behind him a diary of his last two years at Eton, and in this he gives a lucid account of how he initiated the Beagles. He acted on a sudden inspiration. Within a week he had actually got together subscriptions and purchased two couples of beagles. But it is better to give the story in his own words, in extracts from his diary: “_Monday, Jan. 18th_, 1858. Thought of getting up some Beagles. “_Tuesday, Jan. 19th._ Got up £7 10s. for the Beagles. “_Thursday, Jan. 21st._ Ran with Lawless and Hussey. Beagles. Bad run. “_Saturday, Jan. 23rd._ Went with Vyner after 12 and bought two couples of Beagles. There were eight to choose from. We tried them all in a field. Gave £3 a couple for them. Ran a drag after 4, of four miles. I am huntsman, Johnstone _mi._ whip.” All this is clear enough except the mention of Lawless and Hussey. Charrington’s pack was undoubtedly the nucleus of the Oppidan Hunt which existed till its amalgamation with the College Pack in 1866. But Lawless and Hussey kept a few Beagles at the same time. The present Lord Cloncurry, Valentine Lawless at Eton, has given me the following account of his Beagles and how they originated. “I shall be glad if I can help in facts for your book about Eton and the Beagles, but after a lapse of more than sixty years it is not easy to write from memory without notes. Keeping dogs was an offence under strict school rules, though the rule had been often broken, and in Oct. 1857 or Feb. 1858 Dr. Goodford, who was then Head Master, invited me to breakfast at his house and to talk over the question of ‘Lower Boys frequenting Tap.’ As you know, ‘Tap’ was a private room in a public-house beyond Barnes Bridge where beer and mutton chops were served, and where drinking the ‘Long Glass’ and other time-honoured customs were maintained. “Dr. Goodford proposed that, if I (as Captain of the Boats) would put up a notice in Tap, ‘that no Lower Boys be admitted to this room,’ he would withdraw the rules against dogs so far as to authorise the College Beagles and he would give recognition and assistance. My notice remained on the wall in ‘Tap’ for thirty years, it may be there now for all I know. As Captain of the Boats, I became nominal Head of the Hunt, but I was a bad runner, and a long-legged boy named Hussey, stroke oar of the ‘Victory,’ became the real Master and Huntsman of the first _official_ Beagles. Before that time, Beach in 1854, and Charrington later, had kept a few couples.”