The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-02-23 00:00:00

THE
DISPUTED PDX-HUNTING QUESTION

Itf TEI
COUNTY OF DORSET.

We have been requested to publish the follow-
ing correspondence which has just passed between
the Right Hon. Lord PORTMAN, and GERARD
STURT, Esq., M. P., arising out of certain obser-
vations made by the latter gentleman in a speech
delivered by him at the Farquharson Dinner, on
Wednesday, the 10th inst. :
Bryanston,
Feb. 16th, 1858.
DOW GERARD STURT,
I am sorry to feel obliged to write
to you on the subject of your speech at the dinner
to Mr. Farquharson at Dorchester last week, but I
cannot allow it to pass unnoticed, because from the
reports of it I perceive that your attack upon me
was arranged and premeditated. I think you know
me well enough to be assured that if I hail received
notice of your arrangement I should not have failed
to have been present to meet and answer the attack
on the spot. I shall publish this letter and any
answer you may send to it.

I regret that before you quoted from the Illus-
trated News the sentence attributed to me about
James Treadwell you had not the courtesy and
prudence, in the ample time between September and
February, to ascertain from me whether I ever
uttered it; for, I must now inform you, and through
you the public, that I never did so, and that I never
heard of it before I read your speech. I have
known Treadwell many more years than you
have, and I believe him to be a faithful servant,
able and willing to carry out his master's orders.
In my speech at Henstridge it was the system of
hunting followed by Mr. Farquharson of which I
spoke, and not the system of his servants.
It was with much surprise that I read that part of
your speech in which you are made to say that
"after a silence of 40 years" I stated that Mr.
Farquharson has been ruining the sport of the
country. My opinion has been often and openly
stated, and you, as well as others whose names are
given as present at the dinner, are perfectly well
aware that not only in conversation have I expressed
my regret, in common with many others, that by
Mr. Farquharson continuing to hold such an ex-
tremely extensive country, foithuntera were deprived
of the enjoyment of their fair share of sport within
reach of their home, but that whilst my health
allowed me to do it I followed up my opinion and
endeavoured to promote the amusement of my
neighbours and myself by keeping hounds to hunt
the Houghton country, by Mr. Farquharson's per-
misoion, whilst others hunted the Vale. My opinion
remains the same, and I could name many persons,
as you well know, who no far seemed to share it as
to have expressed a wish in the last few years that
I should again keep hounds for their "fun" whilst
Mr. Farquharson's hounds were absent from this
neighbourhood.

It will save trouble if 1 advert in this letter to you
to a few points mentioned by others at the dinner.
Mr. Tatchell Sullen, as reported, forgot to state
that when I was able to—accommodate him with
country, I held the Houghton country, which is not
part of the B. V. country.
_ _

If Mr. Reddy& had communicated with me as
to the mistake which he supposes me to have made,
I would have shown him his own letter on which I
founded my etatement. I do not recollect to have
heard of his angry discussion with Mr. Drair, and
he probably never heard of my pacific discussion
with Mr. Farquharson before I wrote to any of the
proprietors of the Charborough country.
The reports of Mr. Farquharson's speech in the dif-
ferent papers vary so much that it is difficult to know
what he really said (*), but there is one sentence
attributed to him which I cannot believe he could
have spoken, or, if he did so, that he can be prepared
to maintain :—" If Mr. Digby is to hunt the Caundle
"Rolta, and all the Sherborne country, and Holneet,
'how am Ito go on! Why, you know, there would
"not be two days' a week hunting in the whole
"country." Obvious facts are a sufficient answer to
this assertion.

I regret to see that you and your friends are still
determined to make this Foxbunting controversy a
political matter, though you have been assured by
men of honour that, as far as we are concerned, there
is no foundation for your tenacity on this point. I
have for many years known that if the opportunity
should occur an effort would be made. to make Sher.
borne the Melton of the West, and I have always
been ready to do all in my power to assist so good a
sporting object, knowing as well as you do that
there is abundance of country for two days a week
for any other three packs of hounds in Dorset. I
refrain from entering here into other details, but am
ready to meet you and Mr. Farquharson any time
that you might wish for open discussion face to face,

(.) The Report of them proosedbms, published in the Dortd
County Exxon on the 16th inst., msy be relied upon as faith-
ful and saourate throughout, sad D Is st the same time the
fulleet and moat complete that has bean laid before the public.
—Es. D. C. E.

which would enable me to maintain my assertions
by facts and witnesses, or to admit any error into
which I may have inadvertently fallen.
I extract the following paragraph from the Dorset
County Chronicle to give you the opportunity of
adopting or repudiating it, as may be consistent with
your intention, and, as far as you may know, with
the intentions of Mr. Farquharson and his friends.
Extract "But it is certain that whilst there seems
" to be but one possibility of maintaining the field
'sports of Dorsetshire, namely, by Mr. Farquhar-
" son's free resignation of them to some gentleman
"of his choice, as sure BA the attempt to drive him
"out is persisted in there will scarcely be found
"farmer so ungrateful as to preserve a fox."
I must repeat what I have often said to you, I
dare say, among others, that Foxhunting, in my
opinion, whilst all in good humour, is the noblest
and best out-of-door iunusement, but when it ceases
to be "fun" it is the greatest nuisance on earth.
I lament that Mr. Farquharson's foxhunting
career should end with so much bitterness of feeling.
I am quite sure that neither on the part of Mr.
Digby or myself has any unkindness been ever enter-
tained towards Mr. Farquharson, however much
we differ from him on the subject of hunting.

_ Yours truly, _
PORTMA,N.

14, Grosvenor-Street,
Feb. 18th, 1858.

My Dear Lord PORTMAN,
I am sorry to find that you
consider what I said at the Farquharson dinner at
Dorchester, on the 10th instant, as a premeditated
attack upon yourself.
I at once acknowledge that I was wrong in mak.
ing any allusion to your speech at Henstridge Ash
without having previously ascertained from you
whether it was correctly reported in the Illustrated
London News, and I beg to apologise for having
done so.

I am sure you will not expect me to enter into
any explanation as to what may have fallen front
"my friends" upon that occasion, but for myself I
must positively deny having either made or intended
to mate this " foxhunting controversy a political
matter," and I have not the least idea to what you
refer when you speak of my " tenacity " on this
point.
I need not, I am sure, disclaim any intention of
saying one word derogat,ry of your high character,
which no one can hold in greater respect than my.
self; and I should be exceedingly sorry if the
very different opinions which we entertain upon the
hunting question in our county should in any way
diminish the cordiality of those friendly relations
which have so long subsisted between us.

Believe me,
Yours very truly,
GERARD STURT.