The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-10-11 00:00:00

norsietsbfre.

THE 1105. W. 11. BERKELEY PORTMAN.
The lion. William Henry Berkeley Portman Is the
eldest son of the preseut Lord Portman, M.F.H. Ile
was born in INA-', and married, 1865, Mary Selina
Charlotte, daughter of Lord hilltop. Ho was educated
at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, Is member for the
county of Der.et, and Colonel of the West Somerset
Yeomanry. The canto is of Danish origin, and may be
traced on the tombstones of more than one of the
ancient families of Denmark. Like vim father, Lord
Portman, who illstinguisked hhnself at Eton and at
Christ Church as one of the Ant classics of the day,
Mr. Portman is remarkable for literary attainment, end
true also to the ancestral tastes, is • keen and able
sportsman, a good rider, always in • forward plain,
and quiet and urbane in the geld. Somewhere about
the year 1831 Mr. Portman—raised to the peerage in
1817 —commenced Li+ career as • master of hounds.
The country which be undertook to hunt principally,
it not entirely. *mai.... d of a portion of that belonging
to Mr. Farquharson. The latter district was popularly
said to extend from Salisbury to Exeter, a space if
country that could be only nominally bunted by any
'lngle pack of bounds. Empire, however, is never
relinquished without regret, and • reluctance to abdi-
cate Is common both to the crowned autoorat and his
happier brother of t 1..• hunting-field. &Moe to say
that the Alsace ml Lorraine of Dersetahire were con-
verted into • separate ...otintry, which his since been
hunted by Lord Portium. His first pack same from
the Rev. Harry Parr Vaatmam They were, originally,
the bounds of the celebrated George Templer, a Storer
Park, Devonshire, who transferred them to Mr.
Putman, of Stuck House. In the gee are that they
remained under the inaciagement of hlr. Yeatmati,
they killed 248 foxeA, and having met for the last time
at the kitourton Inn, on Saturday, April 16, 1831, they
passed into the possesnon of Mr. Portman. In an after
period the King's County hounds were divided between
Lord Portman and Mr. George Selby, then
muter of the Pitclaley. Theme were known
as the Old Berkeley, purchased by the Hon.
John Westenrs from Messrs; Harvey Comb. and
Stewart Marjoribenks, in the days when Harry Oldaker
made them (among. Of late years the kennel had been
tly improved by the judicious crosses that have
been made by Lord Portman, so that for symmetry,
fashion, and quality them hound, may now take the
same clue amongst their fellows that his Lordship did
"In Uteri, humanioribu" at Oxford. Looking through
the kennel list we true the Guider blood of Belvolr
through hie son Gamester, and the Berkeley Cromwell
strain in Crafty. Both Guider and Crafty are amongst
the hardest runners in the kennel. Sultan, by Lord
Portsmouth's Lincoln. ono of the very best sone of the
Belvoir Guider, Is from Lord Poltimore's Selma by
Lord Yarborough's Rockwood. The Wynatay Royal,
by Lord Fitswillianes Singer. has been of service, and
there 'ls • strong infusion of the Grove or Folyambe
blood; through Grave Nectar by Nectar, by Belvoir
Nimrod, Grove Raman by G. Wrangler, by Lord
Henry Bentinek's Wolelsman, Grove Ruler by G. Albion
one of the accredited atud-hounds of the day, by Sifter
from Aetreu, by Abelard by Belvoir °emus. Then
appears • litter of eight from Fatima by Lord Pali-
more's Warrior, of whom Presbyter and President are
held to be most prominent, stooping low and eve: strain-
ing for the head. It must be satisfactory for
the sportsmen of the West to find that many
of the modern And-hounds of celebrity are to
be !found In the Eggesf ord and Poltimore kennels.
The Bryanstone houndsare brought out in the highest
condition, and their silky coats set off to advantage the
shape and quality which are prevalent throuehout.
This speaks well for the kennel department, and for
the ability of John Smith, the huntsman. The country
hunted by Lord Portman has both woodlands and fine
open downs, over which • fast thing has all the attri-
butes of the Shires. lint foxes apt to hang in the I irp
, *overt, when more than one Is on foot, and first whip
, should be on the aiert,and the huntsman equally go, to
get away with the tlyer. If blood bo Gape:lnd', required
for the hounds, it is well to have It., with a view to the
future, even at the expense of a run. On the other
hand, many a pack has been injured by an undue lean.
ing to dwell in covert with a ringing fox, in preference
to going away and sway, which is the sole and only
true style of fox hunting. In the geld Mr. Portman,
, an excellent sportsman, and a skiver rider, is at hand
to remedy any defect that may tend to bar • run. Only
one word more need to be said. His tather,Lord Portman,
to universally popular, as he well deserves to be, being
an excellent landlord and the most charitable dispenser
, of °unfelt' to the poor. Ile has the means as well as
, the will to do his duty to his neighbour. These pro-
, rties do not always run in couples.—" Bally's Monthly
P.agazine." [This biography is accompanied by • Wilt.
mg likeness of our honourable member. The portrait
IS more accurate than the above sketch, which we are
told, is eroneous in some of its &Wis.—End