The Yellow Earl: Almost an Emporer, Not Quite a Gentleman by Douglas Sutherland

Author:Douglas Sutherland [Sutherland, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910723036
Google: nW5UrgEACAAJ
Amazon: 1910723037
Publisher: Merlin Unwin Books
Published: 2015-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

A photograph showing Hugh’s jumping feat. The distance measured 32 feet from take-off to landing.

With the flood of new industrial wealth and the consequent increase in the number of rich young men looking for excitement and an opportunity to display both their wealth and their courage, foxhunting rapidly developed into the most fashionable of fashionable sports. Foxhunting was no longer a matter of relentless pursuit of the fox. A vast increase in the amount of cultivated land completely altered the scene. There were many more foxes to kill and more country where young bloods could gallop furiously over fences. Soon it became a matter of the greatest social importance to be seen out mounted on the finest bloodstock, and to earn the reputation of being a bold rider to hounds became the highest ambition of a young man who wanted to be thought a good fellow.

Of all the fashionable hunts which came into prominence about this time the Quorn was the most fashionable. In the words of Captain Lionel Dawson, for over the last fifty years one of the great authorities on hunting in this country, ‘The doings of the Quorn were, in hunting circles, comparable to the fate of the Government to the general public.’ On the other side of the coin a contemporary writer described the Quorn field as ‘the most unruly regiment of cavalry in existence’.

Hugh’s great ambition to be Master of the Cottesmore was not to be easily satisfied. Mr Baird (not to be confused with Squire Abingdon), to whom he had rented stables and kennels at Barleythorpe, and who had hunted them since 1880, showed no inclination to give them up, however strong the family claims of a Lowther might be. Hugh even resorted to a most un-Hugh-like strategy of threatening not to renew the lease of Barleythorpe unless Baird surrendered the hounds. Baird retaliated by making arrangements to build his stables and kennels elsewhere, and Hugh gracefully capitulated.

In February 1893 The Country Gentleman, discussing the affairs of the Quorn, where the joint-Mastership of Captain Warner and Mr Paget was coming to an end, confided to its readers: ‘It is an open secret that there is in our midst the ideal man, a good sportsman, a fine horseman, of a personal popularity with all classes – the farmers especially – to give foxhunting a new lease of life. It is to our very great gain if he does see his way to coming to our help.’

At a General Meeting in the first week of April 1893 under the chairmanship of Lord Belper, Hugh was quietly elected to the vacant Mastership. In the light of subsequent events it appears likely that Lord Belper expected strong opposition to the nomination, for the meeting was not advertised and only 29 people were present out of the many hundreds entitled to attend. Certainly when the hunting season reopened, members were not left long in doubt that the new broom had every intention of sweeping exceeding clean. As The Country Gentleman was to remark ‘.

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