The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-06-15 00:00:00

BLANDFORD

SALE OF MR. FARQUHARSON'S FOX-HOUNDS

AND STUD OF HUNTERS.

The mere fact of Mr. Farquharson's hounds and
hunters passing under the hammer of the auctioneer
would be no ordinary event in the sporting world; but,
when associated with the fox-hunting controversy which
has lately engaged the attention of the sporting nota-
bilities of Dorsetshire, it is not surprising that the sale
should have excited more thaulordinary attention, and
attracted to it some of the leading sportsmen from
many parts of England, and a numerous gathering of
the fashionable and curious from this and more distant
neighbourhoods in the county.
The sale was announced to take place at Eastbury
Kennel, and to be conducted by the Messrs. Tattemil.
A. more lovely spot than the one chosen could not be
selected in the oountiof Dorset to grim the fox-hunting
obsequies of the old 'Squire. The Kennel is situated in
Eaetbury Park, at the bottom of the slope gradually In.
dining from the more elevated spilt on which stands
the remains of Eastbury House, originally built by the
Duke of Buckingham, and where Thomson wrote part
of his Sewn.. The building is now appropriated
to the domestic uses and viable arrangements of a fox-
hunting and horse-breeding establishment. Changed
though the building may be, and the portion remaining
being but a fragment of that turreted pUe which once
covered the ground now up-turned by the plough-share,
nature, as If to make amends for the despoiling hand
of man and time, has continued her glorions operations,
and trees of giant-girt and towering height are seen hare
and there in glade-like openings, bounded hy woods tin.
penetrably thick, all gresenting a striking English mine
of nature's untrained grandeur and rich luxuriance,
The avenue of noble trees extending from the lint= JO
of the park to time beautiful archway leading to the
court-yard of time old mansion, and the wide eloping
turf running between, relieving by its verdant fresh-
now the line of dark tree trunk* on either side, seemed
to us to be nature's own vestibule to a stately English
home, The thought oroseed our mind, as we Godwin-
platecithemene, should not snob a spot as this, where deer
have 'matured and the blont of the hunting horn been heard
from ' early morn Ell dewy eve" be the chow home of
one who has scented the breezes of the upland through
Afty hunting lessons, and whose deolining years would
be fitly aesoolated with throe familiar sighte and sounds
which delighted hie youth ant gladdened his menhood,
But Trulwell is winding hii horn, and summoning
the wall-entertained company (rein the tent to time
kennel. To 'hew the profuse liberality of the 'Squire
on the occasion, it inay be mentioned that at lout one
thousand persons were provided with lunolieon, and a
pipe and a half of sherry—not to mention beer and
other liquors—Wee all but oinioumed amongst them,
And now hundreds of well-prlined visitors, with faces
heated from within and without, drawled er mimeo-
thimble sportemen, ito,, In sporting imitation, grooms,
helpers, and even clergymen, form a continuous stream
of °hotting, laughing human life, pouring itself across
the sloping lawn intervening between the luneheontent
end the kennel. The crowd passed Into time kennel,
through the bolting-house, the cooking apparatus on
either side exalting evident astonialiment In the minds
of the uninitiated, and ever and anon elleiting tile
inquiry what this thing meant, and what that? Never
was kennel so crammed with animal life before, and the
crush from confined 'Malta, the heat of a June sun at
it. meridian height, the stench of dogs, and time immov-
ability of time atmosphere, combined to test the well-
filled otomacho of many, and the patient endurance of
. . .

The Knight of the Hammer at length made his ap•
purism* and effected by the aid of the policemen a
partial clearance of the ralled.in compartment in whieli
the doge for sale were to be exhibited, and the lookers-on
congregated in closely-packed manes round the out-
side. Previous to the lint lot of doge being put up, Mr.
Edmund Tattersall (the auctioneer) expressed much
regret at the object which hod brought him into Dorset.
shire, and hoped that there wan some gentleman present
animated by a public spirit who would praline the
hounds and continue to hunt the county. He referred
to the number of ydara Mr. Farquharson had hunted the
county at his own expense, and lamented the feat that
any disputed right to hunting territory should have
brought about the sale he was chomen to conduct.
The first four couples of hounds were then led in and
sold in one lot for 60 guineas ; a second lot of the same
number sold for 76 guineas, a third ditto 67 guineas,
a fourth ditto 56 guineas, a fifth ditto 70 &flees, a
sixth ditto 70 guineas, a seventh ditto 83 guineas, an
eighth ditto 70 guineas, a ninth ditto 100 guineas, a
tenth ditto 120 guineas, an eleventh ditto 88 guineas, a
twelfth ditto 135 guineas, a thirteenth ditto 130 guineas,
a fourteenth ditto 120 guineas, and a fifteenth ditto 125
guineas. The bitches with whelp.' and the whelps
weaned, sold for about 88 guinea., making a total, with
unentered hounds, of about £1,700. Mr. Radalyffe, of
Hythe, eueoeeded in securing many of the best and
higliest-priced lots cold; and from the hints dropped
by the auctioneer during the sale, and the cheers with
which he was greeted by the fox-hunting gentlemen pre-
sent when • lot was knocked down to him, we conclude
that that gentleman is to einmeed to Mr. Farquharson's
hunt, and that this part of the county is to be hunted
as heretofore, with the exception of a change of masters.
Mr. Arkwright, Muter of the Hereford Houndn,
Long, Muter of the Hambledon Hounds, and a gentle•
man belonging to the Cheltenham hunt were likewise
purchaser..
No sooner had the sale of the hounds closed than with
one impulse the congregated hundreds quickly sought to
mumps from the potent influences afloat in the kennel,
and ()wetly passing through the narrow outlet, buttered
themselves in groups over the park, dotting hats and
loosening waistcoats, the better to enjoy the refreshing
bream 'Mining around them. The stragglers soon found
their way to the more elevated part of the perk, and
once more clustering like bees before and around the
auctioneer patiently waited the commencement of the
preen:dingo. The scene at this time was one of the most
animating description, and rarely before, it ever, had a
Tattersall wielded the hammer in a more crowded au-
diem*, before a stranger mixture of the human genus,
or surrounded by a more lovely natural proepeot. The ,
MIMS of people moving here and there, the fluttering of
ladies' drum, the varieties of costume, the neighing of
hones, and the gestures of the excitsd, set oft by wood-
land beauty, relieved by glimpees of stretehed-out corn•
fields and the thatched roofs of embowered villages, cir-
cling In panoramic beauty round the outekine of the
sloping park, made up a picture of nature's lovelinese
and social animation rarely looked upon. A few tape
from the auctioneer's hammer quickly drew the Wen-
!don of all to the busineme object of the meeting. A long
strip of the park close to the old mansion and imam.
Meetly near the stables had been hurdled in for the put,
pees of trotting up and down the hones for sale and
keeping back the people J and al this was the most gene-
rally interesting part of the bunineu proceedings, the
arrangements made for the convenience and comfort of
thou who wished to witneas them were en improvement
on those made at the kennel ; but in neither cue were
they such as were calculated to acoommodate the number
of persons who assembled on the occasion. The whole
of the horses, we believe, sold or bought in, were bred
by Mr. Farquharson, most of them had been ridden to
his hounds and • more useful, well-conditioned, and
fresh-1.95d lot of hunters have rarely been seen. The
merits o each horse were freely canvassed as he was
trotted out, and when a favourite appeared •
hundred tongues sounded his praise and many a sport..
roan told of his doings. Those which appeared to call
forth the most spirited bidding. were Will o'the Wisp,
which sold for 250 guineas ; Tom. 200 guinea(' ; Crocus,
250 guineas ; Mabel, 105 guineas ; and Fancy, 270
guinea.. The remainder of the horses averaged about
60 guineas each, making & total for the whole, 28 cold,
re of E 3,000. Among the purchasers we Mills, E.g.,
M.P.; G. Sturt, Esq., M.P. • Arkwright, Eeq. ;
Montague, Esq. ; Lees, Ks. ; Garth, Esq., the
noted four-in•hand man from tile North ; Pinkney,
Esq., and Batten, Eq. The capital appearance of
the horses was the theme of universal admiration ; and
when it is considered that the hunters were only thrown
out of work in May last, and the unfavourable nature of
the spring season for recovering their condition, great
praise must ever be justly due to those who prepared
them for the hammer. the total proceeds of the sale
amounted to £4,700 ; but as is invariably the Ma,
many of the lots supposed to Wield were bought in ;
and we are just informed that the six lots of bounds
first offered and supposed by some to be bona fide pur-
chases mule by Mr. Tab.:shell Sullen, were bought in.
Still, presuming two or three of the horses to have been
similarly retained by the 'Squire, we cannot but think
that the pecuniary results of the sale must have given
both himself and the auctioneer considerable satis-
faction.

Apart from all pecuniary consideration, it must have
been no slight source of gratification to Mr. Farquharson
to know that his wide-spread reputation as a master of
foxhounda attracted to the sale many of the sporting
oelebrities of England; and, still more, that many from
his own county were there, whose personal friendship for
himself, it may have been, commenced in the hunting-
field, and wee subsequently cemented by social inter-
change. Let the fox-hunting history of his times be
written when it may, the prominent part he has played
therein for the last fifty years must enrol his name
among the names of those whose hunting exploits the
historian will delight to chronicle,

POOLE.
DEATH OF JoEIN DURANT, Een,—We have to record
the death of one of the but and most respected inhabi-
tante of Poole, John Durant, Esq., which took place on
Wednesday last almost suddenly. Mr. Durant was
senior legal praorktimier in Poole. He wadi oleo
member of the Town Council, and more than once filled
the office of Mayor with satisfaction to the town at
large. On Tuesday Mr. Durant presided at the annual
nieetiog of the committee of the Poole Literary Institute
Ind appeared in excellent health and spiral'. The
funeral of the deceased gentleman will take place tor
Tuesday (this dalhathe Cemetery, and it is expected that
• large number of the oorporation and magistrates of
the borough will follow the corpse to the grave.
THuNDERBTORV.—A very violent dam, of thunder
Mid lightning, accompanied by torrents of rain, which
in • Very short time caused the gutters to overflow, and
completely filled the streets with water, visited this town
on Thursday evening Net, but did not extend to any
very great distance in the neighbourhood, for at Bourne-
mouth scarcely any rain fell. Two cottages at Lytollett
were struck by the lightning and burnt to the ground,
Ina happily without injury to the inmates. At Rtwanage
a small boat was damaged by a Hash of lightning.
MoRAviAN III88IdNE),—A sermon was preached in
St. James' Church on Tuesday evening last, by the Rev.
M. A. Collisson, incumbent of .Christ Church, Islington,
on behalf of the Moravian Missions. The rev. gentle-
man took his text from the 87th Psalm, 1 and 2r, The
collection amounted to £3 Bs.
CHRIsTIAN UNION BKNEFIT SOCIETY.—The annual
Tea Meeting of the above society was held in the
National School room on Monday evening. After tea a
meeting of the members took place. The report read by
the chairman, E. Lacy Esq., showed an addition in mem-
bers and funds during the past year. Votes of thanks
to the officers for their services, and to the Ladies' COM-
mittee of the National School for the use of the room
were passed.
CORONATION DAY.—In conformity with the usual
custom of late years, the tradesmen of this town have
unanimously agreed to suspend business on Monday the
28th inst, when we hope that propitious skies will enable
many of our loyal townspeople to enjoy • thorough
holiday.
On Thursday Captain Willis, the Government Inspec-
tor, inspected the men belonging to the borough police
force.
Petri' SRBSlONB.—(Before the Mayor, William Pearce,
Rnt., and a foil bench of imagistrates.)—Solomon Mussel-
white, was summoned by John Hayson, for an assault;
fined 63. and costa—Frank Curtis and Thomas Rinmiorr,
were summoned by P. C. Domony, for loading dung
after 8 o'clock in the earning, contrary to the Bye
Laws; fined is. costa each. —John Willis and Thomas
Mathews, summoned for bathing during prohibited
hours, contrary to the Bye Laws, by P. C Hunt, were
dismissed—John Conden, was brought up for abscond-
ing from his vessel, Diainiased on paying coats, and re-
turning to the yawl.

An important and interesting ease will be tried before
the Judge, Edward Everett, Esq., at the Poole County
Court, on Tuesday (this day), involving the question
whether the placing a name over the door of a trade OP
tabliihment Axes • liability on the party whose name la
appears, although it be only done to accommodate a
minor who is the real proprietor of the business. Mr.
James Druitt, of Chrisiohurch, is engaged for the plain-
tiff, and Mr. Frederick Freeman for the defendant.