The Eton College hunt : $b A short history of beagling at EtonCrossley, Anthony Crommelin
History
The Eton College hunt : $b A short history of beagling at Eton
Crossley, Anthony Crommelin
Beagling; Eton College Hunt -- History
In 1905, Dr. Warre resigned his position as Head Master of Eton to the
great regret of everyone concerned with the beagles. However he became
Provost and continued his connection with the School. Champion always
swears by him. He used occasionally to go to see the kennels, and always
took a kindly interest in the hunt. It was a severe blow to the hunt
when he gave up, and it could truly say in the words of a contemporary
magazine:
“Your road joined ours long years ago,
You found our inmost heart;
The roads diverge again, and so
We part.
We said your work was past, ah no!
’Tis you alone are gone:
The work you did, the debt we owe,
Live on.”
Indeed his work lives on. He had warded off the most severe attacks of
the Humanitarian League, and he had set the examples for Head Masters to
come. The late Head Master continued the good work, and the Humanitarians
have long since ceased to trouble the E.C.H.
G. W. Barclay, son of E. E. Barclay, who is Master of the Puckeridge
Foxhounds, was a wonderful heavy-weight runner. He was Master in 1909-10,
and had a good season. Champion tells a story of how, at a meet near Bray
on the other side of the river, Barclay found himself confronted by an
enormous dyke. He plunged boldly in, but, being heavy, stuck near the far
side. Champion crossed with difficulty, and by dint of a great deal of
pulling and tugging Barclay emerged on the right side, minus his beagling
shoes. These were finally rescued by Champion, and the hunt proceeded.
Afterwards, when they were sumptuously entertained by, I think, Col. Van
de Weyer, Barclay borrowed a pair of flannel trousers which fitted him
passably well as he stood up. When, however, he sat down to tea there
was a loud crack closely resembling the tearing of flannel, and Barclay
backed hastily from the room amid much confusion on his part and laughter
from the rest of the party.
Previous to Barclay, S. G. Menzies had hunted hounds for two seasons
with signal success, killing twenty-four and twenty-five hares. Not
only was he successful in the hunting field itself, but also he was
extraordinarily popular with the farmers. He used to write and thank the
farmer on whose land was found any hare that gave them a real good hunt.
But Menzies really made his name as a killer of foxes. He hunted five
foxes in all, killing three and running two to ground, one of which was
evicted and killed. The first fox to be killed was on Nov. 17th. Here is
the account in the Beagle Book.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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