The Complete Foxhunter

he individual Quorn Hunt, must be recognised, and if it is allowed on the evidence of the horn that Mr. Boothby confined his operations solely to foxhunting the claim is perhaps the strongest of the lot. The Sinnington and the Bilsdale claim to go back to " 1680 or thereabouts," when the Duke of Buckingham established a pack, and it is pretty certain that hounds have been maintained in the neighbourhood ever since. But that they began as buckhounds, or harriers, is more than likely, and the present writer has been unable to fix any date when fox became the permanent quarry. It is, however, the case that the Sinnington country was at one time much larger than it now is, and notably it included what is now known as Sir William Cooke's country, while it has also been asserted that the Bilsdale country was originally part of it. And here it may be mentioned that there are several packs in Northeast Yorkshire, each claiming to be older than the other. Thus the Bilsdale makes a claim to be the legitimate successor of the Duke of Buckingham's Hunt; "the Goathland Hunt goes back to a remote period ; it is mentioned in the records dating back to about 1650, which are preserved at Pickering"; and lastly the Stainton Dale is popularly supposed to have been created by royal charter in the days of King Stephen. As to the Bilsdale and Sinnington it is almost certain that both countries were within the district where the Duke of Buckingham hunted, but ; H Bi the forest ...