Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2009 with funding from

Lyrasis IVIembers and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/foxhuntingindeOOdarl

^^^

'y

Fox Hunting

IN DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

AND

ORIGIN AND HISTORY

OF

The Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club*

Dedicated to the Club fay

GEO. E. DARLINGTON

one of its first memfaers

May JO, J90I.

Franklin Printing Company,

514-520 Ludlow Street,

Philaoblphia.

UNIVERSITY^

PErtNSYLVA^iJ^ j

X CHAPTER I.

FOX HUNTING.

Vi)

If any there are interested in fox hunting
who have the idea that it is a sport of compar-
atively recent origin in this country, it is well to
disabuse their minds of this great error, for it is
well authenticated by history that the English and
French people who first became settlers in
America brought the love of this sport with them
from Great Britain and France, where it had been
the pastime of EngHsh, Irish, and French gentle-
men from very early ages. Many of the bravest
and most daring of the officers of the Continental
army during the American Revolution had been
trained in horsemanship and courage by fox
.hunting. The Quaker settlers of Pennsylvania,
'ino doubt, had a prejudice against it in the earlier
^days, but the farmers among them soon learned
\>5to look upon the sport with a friendly submis-
Sj sion, as it was taken up by those in the common-
*^^\^ wealth who were disposed to follow the hounds,
and at an early date there were quite a few of
% these. Bayard Taylor opens his excellent Story
^ of Kennett with a bag hunt at the old Barton
^ farm near Kennett Square in 1796, and he says:

5

1^

6 FOX HUNTING.

"The chase was an old English pastime that had
been kept up in the neighborhood of Kennett,
from the force of habit, and under the depres-
sion which the strong Quaker element among
the people exercised upon all sports and recrea-
tions."

GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON AS A
FOX HUNTER.

In Washington After the Revolution, by Wil-
liam SpoHn Baker, which is compiled from Wash-
ington's public and private papers, we find that
at Mt. Vernon, after the Revolutionary War,
he enjoyed fox hunting and frequently indulged
in it in hunting season, and his description of the
runs with the hounds, taken from his diary, ap-
peals to the old fox hunter who remembers the
hunting of years ago, when the hounds were
hunted by the horsemen who rode with them, and
not by a master of hounds with his employed
huntsman and whippers-in. An entry from
Washington's diary of December 12th, 1785, de-
scribes a run as follows:

"After an early breakfast, George Washing-
ton, Mr. Shaw, and myself went into the woods
back of Muddy Hole plantation a-hunting, and
were joined by Mr. Lund Washington and Mr.
William Peake. About half after 10 o'clock

FOX HUNTING. 7

(being first plagued with dogs running hogs) we
found a fox near Col. Mason's plantation on
Little Hunting Creek, having followed on his
drag more than half a mile, and run him with 8
dogs (the other 4 getting, as was supposed, after
a second fox) close and well for an hour — when
the dogs came to a fault and to cold hunting 20
minutes after 12, when being joined by the miss-
ing dogs they put him up afresh and in about 50
minutes killed up in an open field of Col.
Mason's — every rider and every dog being
present at the death."

It will be seen by this that even the great
Washington was content to follow a pack of
twelve hounds, and could get a good run and a
death out of them.

Under date of October 27th, 1787, Wash-
ington's diary contains this entry: "Went to the
woods back of ]\Iuddy Hole with the hounds —
unkennelled 2 foxes and dragged others but
caught none — the dogs running wildly and being
under no command."

And under date of November 29th, 1787, he
says: "In company with Col. Humphreys, Maj.
Washington and Mr. Lear, went a-hunting, found
a fox near the Pincushion — run him hard for near
3 quarters of an hour and then lost him." De-
cember 5th, 1787, he says they went out with the

8 FOX HUNTING.

hounds after breakfast, "took the drag of a fox on
the side of Hunting Creek near the Cedar gut,
carried it through Muddy Hole plantation into
the woods back of it and lost it near the Main
Road." And on December 8th, of same year, he
says: "Went a-hunting after breakfast; about
noon found a fox, which the dogs run for some
time in woods through which there was no fol-
lowing them, so whether they caught or lost it
is uncertain." The diary also shows hunts on
December 22d, 26th, and 28th, of same year, with
only a short run on the last day. Under date of
February 2d, 1789, the diary has this entry: "On
my way home met Mr. George Calvert on his
way to Arlington with the hounds I had lent him,
viz. Vulcan & Venus (from France) Ragman &
2 other dogs (from England) Dutchess & Doxey
(from Philadelphia) Tryal, Jupiter & Countess
(descended from the French hounds)."

It will be seen by this that the Virginia
hounds were crossed with English and French
strains of blood, and that Philadelphia hunters
had a stock of hounds that Washington was
pleased to have in his pack.

This diary shows fully the pleasure Washing-
ton took in hunting, and that it was enough of
an event in his life to be entered in the records
of it.

FOX HUNTING. 9

General Washington was born on February
22d, 1732, SO that he was fifty-five years of age
when he was still riding vigorously to hounds and
keeping the diary of his hunts. From Washing-
ton Irving's Life of General Washington we learn
that at the age of sixteen he was tall, athletic,
and manly for his years, and that he became the
hunting companion of Lord Fairfax, who was a
staunch fox hunter and kept horses and hounds
in the English style — that he found Washington
to be as bold as himself in the saddle and as eager
to follow the hounds; and that it was probably
under the tuition of this hard riding old noble-
man that the youthful Washington imbibed that
fondness for the chase for which he was after-
wards remarked.

CHAPTER 11.

RED FOXES.

The red fox hunted in the Atlantic States,
in which EngHsh, Irish, or French gentlemen
first settled, who were lovers of the hunting
sport, was probably brought here by them, with
the fox hounds, that they might indulge in this in-
vigorating and exciting pastime on horseback, as
they had been accustomed to in the old country.
Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania seem to be

lO FOX HUNTING.

the first States into which fox hunting was first
introduced, and these States still hold their places
as leading States for the sport.

Some zoologists claim that the red fox
{Vulpes Pennsylvamcns) probably covers the whole
of North America, but east of the Mississippi
River, and are hardly found south of the Caro-
linas; and that this American red fox is very
similar to the European fox; that it is very
doubtful if this fox was ever introduced here in
any large numbers, and that towards the South it
gets scarce and is replaced by the gray fox.

This merely throws a doubt upon the intro-
duction of our swift-running red fox from Europe,
originally; but it certainly is a well-known fact
among old fox hunters that foxes from any other
part of the country than the low counties of
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and per-
haps North Carolina, are not of the same build
as the bright red colored, long-legged, active,
swift-running, and long-winded Pennsylvania fox
that was hunted here in years gone by. And
another fact is well known, that the red fox is a
very prohfic breeder, and might in years extend
its species all over these States at least.

The gray fox is said to range across the
country south of the red fox, and both species
occur together on the extremes of their range,

FOX HUNTING. II

but that the gray fox does not extend much north
of southern Pennsylvania, and even there it is
scarce. On the Pacific coast it reaches Oregon.
Some zoologists consider the Pacific coast form
to be distinct (F. Calif ornicus) with various sub-
species.

The black, silver, and coon foxes are not
considered as distinct specific forms. We do not
find any form but the red fox in eastern Penn-
sylvania.

The gray fox is a poor runner as compared
with the red fox, but can climb a tree like a
coon.

PUPPY RUN AFTER A GRAY FOX.

Within a recent period one of the members
of the Rose Tree Club having been presented
with a gray fox, brought him in his box to the
club-house, and it was decided to train three of
the eight-months-old hound puppies on him, that
had never scented a fox. The puppies and
the fox were taken, by the few members who
happened to be present, to a neighboring field,
where the fox was turned from his box, after the
puppies had been induced to smell at him and
had been badly frightened by the growl of the
fox. The fox, when released, instead of running
ofif, boldly walked toward the assembled club

12 FOX HUNTING.

men, and the puppies put tail between legs and
sneaked to the rear; nor could they be induced to
face the fox. After a great clapping of hands
and shouting, the fox was finally frightened into
a run across country, and the puppies, getting
wind of the scent, started on the trail under full
cry. The hunters, on foot, followed, with the
Master of Hounds, Mr. George W. Hill, and the
Huntsman, "Doc." Rogers, in the lead, across
two large fields, where the puppies were found to
be at fault and the fox out of sight and lost. After
a fruitless search "Doc." Rogers was sent to the
kennel for an old, worn-out hound to find the
track for the puppies. One of the hunters, hap-
pening to look up a large chestnut tree, near the
fence, saw the fox perched on a low limb, sup-
porting himself by a fore leg over it as a per-
son would hook an arm above the elbow, and
gazing down on us in the most unconcerned man-
ner. It took some time to induce him to quit
his hold and come to the ground, but when he
did he started ofif for a piece of woodland in fine
running shape. Then the puppies had to be
hunted up, and "Doc." arriving with his old
hound, all were put on the trail, and made a fine
run under full cry, through the wood, over a
ploughed field, across sod, and over into and
through the Tyler woods, until another loss was

FOX HUNTING. I3

made, and the gray fox was discovered high
among the limbs of a tall tree that he had
climbed, and where he was permitted to remain,
the hounds being called off and taken to the
kennels, the puppies having shown good scent
and hunting qualities.

CHAPTER III.

FIRST AMERICAN ORGANIZED HUNT CLUB.

The first organized fox hunting club we have
any knowledge of we get from the records of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and it is of
the "Gloucester Fox Hunting Club," whose
membership included quite a number of gentle-
men prominent in civic and military Hfe in Phila-
delphia, about the time of the Revolution. The
first meeting of this club was held on December
13th, 1766, in the old Philadelphia Coffee House,
at the northwest corner of Front and Market
streets. From that time the meeting place was at
the old ferry house, kept by William Hugg, at
Gloucester. The club at its organization was com-
posed entirely of Philadelphians, who adopted a
code of rules for its regulation, and the club
flourished until long after the Revolution. The
roll of membership exceeds 125, and includes such
names as Benjamin Chew, Charles Willing,

14 FOX HUNTING.

Thomas Willing, James Wharton, Thomas Mifflin,
Israel Morris Jr., Robert Morris, John Cadwal-
ader, Richard Bache, Colonel Thomas Heston,
Joseph Penrose, Joseph Bullock, Stephen Moylan,
Samuel Caldwell, Samuel Howell, Jonathan Pen-
rose, Isaac Cox, John Dunlap, Thomas Leiper,
and James Caldwell, of Philadelphia; and of New
Jersey, General Wilkinson, General Franklin
Davenport, Captain James B. Cooper, Captain
Samuel Whitall, Colonel Joshua Howell, Colonel
Thomas Robinson, Jonathan Potts, and Colonel
Benjamin Flower. The members of the club met
once a week, or oftener, for the hunt, but the
Revolutionary War for a time put a stop to the
sport, when President Samuel Morris and twenty-
one others of the club, including Thomas Leiper,
who was first sergeant, organized the First City
Troop of Philadelphia City Cavalry. Captain
Morris' negro slave, "Old Natty," served the club
as aid and master of hounds from 1769, at $50 per
year, and the club furnished him with a house and
horse, his assistant being Jack Still. The uni-
form of the club in 1774 was a dark brown cloth
coatee, with lapeled dragoon pockets, white but-
tons and frock sleeves, buff waistcoat and
breeches, and black velvet cap. In 1775 the pack
consisted of thirty-one hounds, and in 1778 the
kennels on the Delaware near Gloucester Point

FOX HUNTING. I5

consisted of a selected pack of twenty-two
hounds, whose names were: "Mingo," "Piper,"
"Drummer," "Sweetlys," "Rover," "Countess,"
"Dido," "Slouch," " Ringwood," "Tippler,"
"Driver," "Tuneall," "Bumper," "Juno," "Dutch-
ess," "Venus," "Sugnell," "Davy," "Toper,"
" Bowler," and " Bellman," besides ten six-
months-old pups. This old club survived until
1818, and existed for fifty-two years. Often dur-
ing the hunting season when the ice was not
strong enough to admit of crossing on it by horse-
back, the Philadelphia members would ride to
Trenton, cross the bridge there, and thence down
on the Jersey side rather than miss the arranged
chase. The chase generally lasted only a few
hours, but once, in 1798, the fox carried the pack
in full cry to Salem; and it was a point of honor
never to give up until the fox was killed or
holed.

General Robert Wharton, a former Mayor of
Philadelphia, was a member of the club. The
Thomas Leiper mentioned was the father of the
late George G. Leiper and Samuel M. Leiper, of
Delaware County, and a great-grandfather of the
present George G. Leiper, a noted fox hunter
and keeper of hounds, of this county up to a
recent date; so that his love of the sport came
naturally to him from his ancestor. While the

1 6 FOX HUNTING.

sons of Samuel M. Leiper were not fox hunters,
two of them, Captain Thomas I. Leiper and Gen-
eral Charles I. Leiper, were distinguished and
brave officers in the war of the Rebellion, General
Leiper serving in the United States Volunteer
Cavalry under Sheridan.

THE FOX HOUND.

From the information we get of the hunting
of foxes, the English and French hounds of that
early day were the long-eared, keen-scented, loud-
voiced hound, which is now known as the
"American hound," and which has been used in
this country from its earlier history, and were
used in England and France as long as fox
hunting (that is, following the fox by scent) was
the true sport; but as the stock of horses for
cross-country steeple chasing was improved, and
they wanted faster running of their foxes from
cover to cover, depending on the master of
hounds, huntsmen, and whippers-in to keep their
well-trained pack together, then they required the
faster-running, sturdy hound, with little nose or
voice, and, therefore, bred the shorter-eared and
nosed English hound of the present day for their
hunting.

fo

FOX HUNTING. I7

CHAPTER IV.

HUNTING IN DELAWARE COUNTY.

Delaware and Chester Counties, originally
and up to 1789 comprising one county, are prob-
ably the oldest and best-hunted counties in Penn-
sylvania. The memory of living man cannot go
back to a time when hounds for hunting the red
fox were not kept within their limits.

Those living within a few years past, and
some of whom were born as far back as 1795, have
told us of fox hunts they witnessed when boys,
in Middletown, Aston, and Concord townships:
when Charley Pennell, Nicholas and Joseph Fair-
lamb, Squire Baldwin, and Anthony Baker were
noted hunters, and later, we learn of hunts from
the Black Horse and Anvil taverns, the former in
Middletown, and the latter in the part of Upper
Providence township which is now Media, num-
bering among its hunting landlords George
Litzenberg and Charley Wells, and of the stiff
rides made more daring by the bracers that had
been taken before the start. Our own respected
and beloved President, Mr. H. E. Sauliner, tells
of his riding in hunts from the Anvil early in the
thirties; and J. Howard Lewis, our genial and
popular Vice-President, hunted from that house
in about 1837, the tavern name being afterwards

l8 FOX HUNTING.

changed to the "Providence Inn." In those good
old days, among the earlier noted hunters who
kept hounds were Abraham Martin, the Greens
of Edgmont, Henry Myers, Caleb and Minshall
Hoopes, John Broomall, James Hickman, Jesse
Walter, John Palmer, William and Pennell Han-
num, Jim Myers, of Thornbury, Evan Hannum, of
Concord, James Burns and Dr. William Gray, of
Chester, George Litzenberg, of Upper Provi-
dence, and Tom Beaston, of Upper Chichester.
An honorary member of the Rose Tree Club,
Mark Pennell, also kept hounds many years ago,
and our well-known Master of Hounds, George
W^ Hill, commenced his hunting with him in
about 1830, on foot, as Mr. Pennell often in-
dulged in that way of hunting.

From this Mark Pennell, now eighty-eight
years of age, we learn that Charles Pennell, his
cousin, died in 1829, and that he did some hunt-
ing as late as 1828; and that among his hounds
was a celebrated blue and white hound named
"Plunder," Charles Pennell, who was born about
1760, kept hounds from his earliest manhood,
and was well known as a skilled hunter and a bold
rider. He rode at several bag hunts from the
old Anvil tavern. We heard of him from a
gentleman who was born in 1797, and who
when a small boy was watching, with his

FOX HUNTING. I9

brothers, the hounds running over the hills on his
father's farm, in Middletown township early one
morning, that Charley Pennell came riding to
them on a good young horse that had never
hunted before, and which he put at a low worm
or stake and rider fence, and that the horse re-
fused to take it. At Mr. Pennell's request, the
boys cut a stout stick for him, and with this per-
suader he drove his horse at the fence again and
he went blundering over it after the hounds.
Some hours after this, the boys, hearing the
hounds returning, ran to the hills and met them
in full cry, with Mr. Pennell close after, his horse
taking every fence in the way in flying leaps. It
was under such an instructor that Mr. Mark Pen-
nell got his early experience in fox hunting from
the age of fourteen years. He kept from eight
to ten hounds at his farm home in Aston town-
ship, which he went to in 1835, and hunted them
for many years; and as several of his farmer
neighbors kept a few hounds also, when he
wanted a hunt his ringing fox-hunting call would
bring the neighbors' hounds to him. His prac-
ticed ear taught him to know the cry of the differ-
ent hounds he hunted with, so that it was easy for
him to also know how and where they were run-
ning and which ones were on the lead.

Few farm.ers objected to hunting over their

2

20 FOX HUNTING.

lands, and generally they were fond of seeing the
hunt and hearing the hounds in full cry; and this
love of the sport is illustrated by the fact, that a
farmer named Jesse Russell, living in Edgmont
township, and whose farm contained a well-
wooded round top called Hunting Hill, a favorite
retreat for foxes, when on his death bed re-
quested that he should be buried on Hunting
Hill, where he could hear the hounds running.
He was buried on the north side of this hill, and
afterwards the spot was adopted as a family bury-
ing ground, and so still remains with a wall of
native stone around it which is fast going to de-
cay, but which some of the fox hunting clubs of
the county propose to rebuild and put in good
condition. His tombstone bears this inscription :

"This stone is erected to the memory of Jesse
Russell, who departed this life September 12th,
1820, in the 42nd year of his age, and was de-
posited here at his own request."

In the same lot is the grave of John Russell,
a brother, who died March 24th, 1831, and of
Susanna Russell, who died January 5th, 1837; and
also of Priscilla Russell, who died August 4th.
1861, in the seventy-seventh year of her age;
there are also two other graves of members of
the family.

Jesse Russell was an ardent fox hunter.

FOX HUNTING. 21

Priscilla Russell was well known among the fox
hunters of her day as "Aunt Prissy"; and Caleb
Hoopes, now eighty-five years old, who was a
fearless hunter in those days, says of her that she
lived on this Hunting Hill farm, and, having an
inherited love of the sport, she always had ready
a mince pie or some good cider to appease the
appetite and quench the thirst of her fox-hunting
friends. All the hunters of that part of the
country were her friends and were sure to stop at
her house. So, may her ashes rest in peace, and
if there is such a thing as the spirits of the de-
parted being permitted to participate in the things
that pleased them in this world, may Jesse and
Priscilla still enjoy the musical cry of the hounds
as they hunt the wily fox around Hunting Hill !

Many other farmers, old and young, hearing
the hounds running in their neighborhood, would
leave work, rush to the barn, saddle and bridle
the horse, and join in the chase.

Red foxes have generally been plentiful in
Delaware County, and therefore the true lovers of
the sport have always hunted the wild fox and
scorned the anise-seed bag.

22 FOX HUNTING.

CHAPTER V.

HUNTING THAT LED TO THE FORMATION OF
THE ROSE TREE CLUB,

The author commenced his fox hunting with
Mr, J. Howard Lewis in the winter of 1852-53,
and they were two of the originators of the Rose
Tree Ckib. At that time among the old noted
hunters who packed fox hounds in this county
were Jim Burns and Ned Engle, of Chester, and
they had been hunting for years in Tinicum and
up the Ridley creek country, and with them, in
the fifties, hunted Jake Stewart; these men then
hunting on foot; Burns and Engle at that time
considering themselves too old to ride. Then
there was John Mahoney, of Rockdale, who had
a noted pack of hounds and was an old and gritty
rider, although it is said that John commenced
his hunting on foot with Mark Pennell and
George W. Hill, who furnished him with his first
hounds, George Powell, of Springfield, was an
old and good hunter, with his well-known blue-
speckled pack, and his hunting companion, Jack
Smith. Jones and Hunter Moore, of Haverford,
had packed hounds from 1845, ^nd only gave it
up about three years ago, both good riders and
hunters, and always with a pack that could not be
excelled; and with them hunted Dan Abrahams,

FOX HUNTING. 23

afterwards known as the "Old Squire"; Bill and
Tom Crosley, of Radnor, hard riders, had a large
pack of good, wiry, white-speckled hounds; Bill
rode a gray, spirited rnare that never refused the
stiffest four-rail fence; she afterwards was owned
and ridden by J. Edward Farnum, of the Rose
Tree Club. Pratt and Wash. Bishop, of Upper
Providence, both excellent hunters and riders, had
good hounds; so had Chandler Thomas and his
brother, of Upper Providence, who lived on the
farm, now the Bullock property, adjoining the
Rose Tree Club house grounds; Bill Noble, of
Ridley, had hounds; Jesse Hickman, of Thorn-
bury, a skilled hunter, good rider, a great lover
of the sport, had a fine pack; also had William
Grant and Henry Reynard, Mike Carrigan, of
Thornbury, and Levis Speakman, of Birmingham,
Wm. Hannum, of Aston, and Osborn Booth, of
Concord.

Hounds were also packed at the Plum Sock
tavern on the West Chester road, known as the
old William Penn, and kept by Joseph and John
Tucker, who were active fox hunters. Later,
there was Ned Barber, who had a pack of
American hounds with ears trimmed to a bull
terrier cut and chopped-off tails; this, however,
did not interfere with the goodness of the hounds,
but ruined their beauty in the eyes of all the old

24 FOX HUNTING.

hunters. Such trimming might not mar the
beauty of the short-eared EngHsh hounds now so
popular with some hunting men. Jackson Baker,
Davis Broomall, WilHam Green, G. Leiper Green.
Robert Sill, J. Davis Roney, R. David Johnson,
Sherwood Baker, and James Pinkerton hunted a
pack of hounds from the Howellville tavern (now
Gradyville), in Edgmont township, kept by Robert
Sill, from about 1866; and when Davis Broomall
became landlord of the William Penn tavern, in
187 1, this pack was hunted from that tavern
house. James Neeld, of Concord, also had an ex-
cellent pack and was a keen sportsman.

The hounds of all these packs were of the
best for a cold drag, a hot scent, and a long run,
and, as many of the packs hunted over the same
country, it was not an unusual thing to have them
get together on the same fox, and the hunter
would find himself following from forty to sixty
well-bred hounds in full cry, making music that
delighted the heart and stirred the blood to
daring deeds of horsemanship.

Mr. Lewis and Mr. Darlington had their own
pack of eight or ten hounds, and they packed and
hunted together until the Rose Tree Club was
formed; their hounds for the first years, and to
1859, being packed at Mr. Lewis' mill property in
Nether Providence. The names of some of the

FOX HUNTING. 25

hounds kept by them were Mr. Lewis' "Rousem,"
"Slasher,"' ''Trailer," ".Sounder," and "Tetlaw";
and Mr. Darlington's "George" and "Belle," from
the Crosley pack, "Hickman," from the Powell
pack (and named for the distinguished Congress-
man of this district); and "Heenan," from the
Mahoney pack (named for the then celebrated
prize fighter). Mr. Lewis always said that when
"Heenan" was called up to scent on a cold drag
and he gave tongue, we were sure it was a fox
track.

CHAPTER VL

ORIGIN OF THE ROSE TREE CLUB.

The Rose Tree Club was first formed in the
year 1859 at the old Rose Tree Inn, after J.
Morgan Baker became the owner and landlord of
that tavern house, and it was organized by the
election of J- Howard Lewis as President, George
E. Darlington as Secretary, and J. Morgan Baker
as Treasurer, and minutes of meetings and hunts
were regularly kept, but, unfortunately, they have
been lost. Every member of the club was an
active and trained fox hunter, and being- well
qualified to hunt the hounds by practical experi-
ence, no master of hounds or huntsman was re-
quired. A whipper-in, Jim Miller (colored), was

26 FOX HUNTING.

employed to bring back stray hounds, and he was
a good and bold rider. The other members of
the club were Pratt Bishop, Thomas Bishop,
Wash. Bishop, Edward Howard, Edward Lewis,
Edward E. Worrall, James G. Stacey, Gideon
Malin, and John J. Rowland, for up to 1873 it
had almost exclusively a Delaware County mem-
bership, Fairman Rogers and J. Edward Farnum,
who joined before that date, both having resi-
dences in the county.

The pack was made up of the hounds of Mr.
Lewis and Mr. Darlington, and hounds furnished
by the Bishops and by J. Morgan Baker, who put
in a good red bitch named "May," making up
about fifteen of as good and true hounds as ever
ran a fox. These hounds were kenneled during
the hunting season in an out-building attached to
the old tavern barn.

Many a hard ride the members had together,
starting for the find, as they did, before sunrise
in the morning, working up the fox from the
meadow or low ground where he had been
mousing before daylight: sometimes dragging for
miles before jumping him from his lair on the
warm side of a wooded hill, where he was lying
curled in his bed of leaves; then ofT on a hard run
until the fox was holed or killed, which not infre-
quently was long after the noon hour; or if holed

FOX HUNTING. 2/

earlier, then off to jump a fresh fox for another
run. It was a rare chance for a fox to get
away from the hounds and riders until he had
taken to earth. Any hunter who has not seen the
early morning drag on a cold scent does not
know the pleasure given in the display of intelli-
gence of hounds in this work and of the fine scent
with which they are gifted; and see how the
young hounds learn to depend on the reliable old
fellows for the true track, when they give tongue,
and how they eagerly cluster around them scent-
ing for the track. Other hounds, less reliable,
might cry a track and no attention would be paid
to them. This working a cold drag is a delicate
and skilled piece of business, in the getting of the
course the fox has taken to his lair, and requires
experience and strong sense. Well-trained
hounds scatter in this work so as to lose no
chance of a true find; but as the scent and
course get certain and warmer, then your pack
will work closer together, with a loud burst of cry
as a more certain spot of scent is reached. When
the fox is jumped there is no mistaking the joy-
ful, exultant cry that bursts from every hound,
and away they go, and he who would follow must
now ride hard, and strain ears and sense to get
the course they are taking; for the skilled hunter
has ridden closely with his hounds on the drag,

28 FOX HUNTING.

encouraging them with his voice and urging them
on if they have shown disposition to quit, and he
should be on hand for the run to encourage the
hounds if an out is made, and see that they make
the proper casts or circHng, for the fox may
knock them out by doubHng on his tracks, or by
running a fence, or through a stream of water, or
by some other wily trick that an old red fox
knows only too well how to adopt. In those days
no hunting horns to call the hounds were deemed
necessary, for a hunter who could not ring his
voice over the hills and valleys on a frosty morn-
ing to the hounds far away, in the true hunting
cry, was not considered much of a fox hunter.
Mr. Mark Pennell, who had a clear, strong, far-
reaching voice, has given his experience how far
the hunting cry can be heard, and he tells of a
certain cold, still, frosty morning how he went to
the barn on his farm in Aston and after cleaning
and feeding his hunting horse preparatory to a
moimt for a hunt, he walked to the top of a hill on
his farm and gave his calls to get in a favorite
hound named "Tyler," owned by Nicholas Fair-
lamb, whose farmhouse was on the INliddletown
road below the old Presbyterian church, estimated
to be between four and five miles across country
from Mr. Pennell's. After calling several times,
Mr. Pennell went to his house for breakfast, and

FOX HUNTING. 29

coming out immediately after this meal was over,
he found "Tyler" waiting and ready for him. He
learned after, that the hound was in the kitchen of
his master's house, and Mr. Fairlamb, hearing him
howling to get out, got up and opened the door,
and away went the hound. Some neighbors of
Mr, Pennell, living between his house and the
Fairlamb house, heard Mr. Pennell calling up the
hound and soon after heard and saw "Tyler" run-
ning fast for Mr. Pennell's house.

Mr. Pennell also says that on another occasion
he had run a fox to the Brandywine and earthed
him near the Baptist church, and after holing he
called to let the other hunters know the fox was
holed; some men who were near the Willcox
CathoHc church in Aston, and knew Mr. Pennell's
voice, heard that call; this distance is over three
miles.

Those were the days when the sport was
truly hunting, and not steeple chasing with
hounds across country. The hunting horses were
not as good then as now, for they were not
blooded stock; but the hunter knew how to save
his horse's wind and strength by never forcing a
jump when unnecessary, and by taking some of
the work on himself in the climbing of steep hills
afoot, leading his horse to the top.

30 FOX HUNTING.

THE CUNNING OF THE FOX.

Every man of the club knew the habits of
the fox by experience, and after one or two runs
of the same fox he knew what that fox was Hkely
to do in his run. It may be well to say here that
the red fox of that day was full of cunning, and
while a few were holed in a short run, the old
foxes generally seemed fond of being hunted, and
when the scent was not strong enough to enable
the hounds to run with heads up, or as was called
"breast high," and they had to hunt it closely on
the ground, the fox, after getting well ahead,
would stop, sit down, listen to the cry of the
hounds, and roll on his back in apparent glee,
allowing the hounds to come within a short dis-
tance of him before starting again on his run. If
the hounds were running him too hard, then he
had various tricks of cunning to throw them of¥
his scent; sometimes doubling on his tracks, that
is, turning back over the same ground he had
been running from the hounds, and then leap far
from it so as to break the scent, which naturally
made the eager hounds overrun and lose the
track; then there must be a cast back to find it
again. Old hounds generally circled, as the
quickest and surest way to find where the fox
had gone, while young hounds were apt to run

FOX HUNTING. 3I

the back track. Another favorite cunning of the
fox was to cross a stream of water by leaping
from stone to stone, or by swimming the broader
ones, and even broad dams of water; or by taking
a shallow stream and running the course of it for
a distance and then taking out on the opposite
side; again, he would mount and run the top rail
of a fence, and perhaps take a cross fence the
same way, and then leap far from it to the ground
to resume his run. Again, he would run up an
inclining tree trunk and secrete himself in the
branches until the hounds passed, or if they
scented him and surrounded the tree, then it was
not an unusual thing for the fox to spring out
among the hounds and get away from them in
their interfering eagerness to catch him. And
again, he would run into the middle of a flock of
sheep in a field, and do all the sheep might, in
their fright, they could not get rid of him until
he chose to leave them. The result of these
tricks was a rest to him from his running, and
the hunter must be on hand to assist and en-
courage the lost hounds in solving the problem
of what trick the fox had adopted. A well-
known, large, white-tipped-tailed fox that gave
many a good run from the Miller and Tyler
woods, in several of the hunts lost the hounds,
when he tired of the run, in the midst of the same

American Hound, "Jumbo,"
of the Rose Tree Fox Htmt Pack.

FOX HUNTING. 33

good-natured rivalry in the field. The American
hound was the only hound used, the pride being
to have him show full American breeding points.
The size was not so much a question, although
large, loosely-made hounds were not popular.
What was wanted was deep-chested, strongly
put together hounds for lasting in running, with
good sounding voices, pointer-shaped noses of
good length, long ears that would meet at the
tips across the end of the nose when stretched
forward, and high-pointed head bone at top of
head. It was not an unusual thing to see an old
fox hunter stretching the ears of a favorite
hound with his fingers, to show with pride how
they would meet across the end of the nose.
The hounds used were as good as any hunter
could desire, and for an all-day hard run could
not be excelled. The puppies were bred and
raised at the hunter's own home.

The rule of the club was that any member
taking the hounds out for a run must see that they
be returned safe to the kennel, and the members
never failed to obey the rule, even if the run lasted
until after sundown, as it sometimes did.

The hounds, during this first organization of
the club, were only kenneled during the hunting
season, from November to March, each owner at
other times keeping his hounds at his own home.

34 FOX HUNTING.

CHAPTER VII.

PLACES WELL KNOWN TO HUNTERS.

The well-known places for starting or holing-
foxes were: Hunting Hill, the Chestnut Sprouts,
afterwards known as Chestnut Woods, Charles
Johnson's woods, the Cedar Barrens, Castle
Rocks, the Snake House Woods (which took its
name from a deserted house where large quan-
tities of snakes were found), the old Saw Mill
woods on Crum creek, Lobb's woods. Trout
Run, Paxson's Hollow, Towel's Rocks, Bare Hill,
Tyler's woods. Miller's woods, Poplar Hill,
Painter's woods, Smedley's Barrens, a large tract
of woodland; the Turn Hole on Crum creek be-
low Holland's bridge. Fell's Hills, Gibbon's Hills,
Maris' woods on Darby creek. Long Point on
Ridley creek, and the Greenbriers, below the
Black Horse hotel. The most famous places for
the holing of foxes were Castle Rocks, Towel's
Rocks, and the Turn Hole; in either place the fox
was safe from bag hunters, as they could not be
dug out owing to the rocky nature of the ground.
In open soil, such as used for ground hog holes, a
few hours' digging would unearth a fox, and a
forked stick with a string across it for the fox to
snap on, so that it could be tv/isted by a turn
around his nose and jaw. made it easy to drag him
from the end of the hole.

■ FOX HUNTING. 35

OLD CASTLE ROCKS.

Castle Rocks deserve more than a passing
notice, for besides being so well known to fox
hunters of Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery
Counties, it has a well authenticated legend at-
tached that made it celebrated from the time of
the Revolutionary War. The country surround-
ing it was then a densely wooded country, and its
location was near the old King's highway, which
is now known as the West Chester and Philadel-
phia turnpike road, along which the trolley road
is constructed, and the old rocks and remain-
ing wood are now used for picnic grounds and
for the annual reunion and love feasts of the
people of those three mentioned counties, where
they can gossip, talk crops, politics, or any other
rural topics, and can be served with beef from a
whole roasted ox, ride on the merry-go-round, or
be entertained by plantation songs and dances, as
well as witty speeches and otherwise. But during
the hunting season the winter winds, frosts, and
snows put an end to these modern encroachments
on the solemn and silent solitude of the old
rocks, and the fox and the hunters still have them
as of yore; the fox often passing over or near
them in his run to see that they still remain safe
for him to go to earth in, when too hard driven;
or if he is already tired, he quietly slips into one
3

36 FOX HUNTING.

of the many holes in them for rest, knowing that
he is secure both from man and dog.

The legend is that a bold highwayman named
Fitzpatrick, who, as one story goes, had been an
Irish soldier in the British army during the Revo-
lutionary War, and having deserted, turned rob-
ber, and the other being that he was a deserter
from the American army, after being punished for
some offence, and that these rocks were his main
haunt, where he had a cave in which he lived
alone and stored his booty, for if he had any rob-
ber companions connected with him they never
gained the celebrity Fitz did; but, if a cave of suffi-
cient size for such a home ever existed it long ago
disappeared, although the mass of high, piled,
loose rocks are amply large for the formation of
a cave or construction of a hut. Fitzpatrick, as
the legend goes, had a very tender heart for the
poor and needy, and while he had no love for the
Whig and Patriot of that day and robbed their tax
collectors and well-to-do farmers and tradesmen,
yet he was said to have plundered only the rich,
and gave to the poor when he found them in need,
and, consequently, he had many friends among
them, and they shielded and served him and saved
him often from capture, and enabled him to lead
this roving, thieving life for a series of years, in
comparative security. As it is also told of him,

FOX HUNTING. 37

that he had for a time been making his home in
a small deserted house in the neighborhood, and
the fact having become known to his enemies, one
night when he had gone there to rest and had
taken his, or somebody else's good horse into
the house with him, it was surrounded by those
enemies, who pounded on the door and de-
manded his surrender. Fitz cocked his trusty
pistols, opened the door, and mounting his saddled
and bridled horse rode boldly through the fright-
ened men, and bidding them good evening was off
and away unharmed and uncaptured. The dark
hint has been given that the crowd contained more
friends than enemies of this bad man. Another
instance is told of his courage and daring, and this
took place at one of the old taverns on the road to
West Chester. A heavy reward price for those
days was offered for his capture, and the neighbor-
hood was aroused and men banded together to
hunt and secure him, and thus it was that on a
certain day one of these parties, composed of sev-
eral men, after scouring the country, had stopped
at the tavern to refresh themselves, leaving their
horses hitched on the outside, and feeling secure
in numbers they had stacked their guns in a cor-
ner of the bar room and were making merry over
the landlord's good cheer, and were boasting of
how they would capture Fitz when they found

38 FOX HUNTING.

him. In walked Fitzpatrick, who was unknown
to them, and, after Hstening to their bravado, he
strided to the bar, and ordering a glass of whiskey
for himself invited the others to join him, which
they were nothing loth to do. Drink followed
drink, and they continued their merriment to-
gether, until Fitz, tiring of the sport, edged him-
self out until he stood between the men and their
guns, and, drawing and cocking his pistols, boldly
announced who he was and dared them to capture
him. Finding they were completely cowed, he
coolly ordered them out into the road before him,
where, lining them up at a safe distance from his
and their horses, he mounted, and, bidding them
good day, rode off at a gallop. The landlord, pos-
sibly, had no ill feeling against Fitz; at least, he
did not show himself to be an enemy.

Fitzpatrick had often boasted that he would
not be taken by mortal man; but a woman effected
his downfall, as the story goes, for Fitz was not
only fond of strong drink, but also had a weakness
for comely girls, and it came about in this wise:
On the north side of the old West Chester road,
near Castle Rock, was the farmhouse of a man
named McAfee, and which was on the farm now
known as the Taylor farm; at this house lived
a buxom, stout, good-looking Irish girl, whom
Fitzpatrick knew and admired; so, one day, being

FOX HUNTING. 39

the worse for liquor, he visited the house and went
to a room where the girl was. Seeing a pair of
new shoes, Fitz conceived the idea that it would
be well to exchange his old, well-worn pair for
them, and, sitting down on the side of the bed, he
pulled off his shoes and put on the new pair; as
he raised up, the girl, who had gotten up behind
him, threw her strong arms around him, pinioning
his arms fast to his body. Fitz, thinking it a play-
ful joke on her part, tried to rock himself, in a
drunken but good-humored manner, from her
grasp; the girl, however, held on and calling aloud,
the farm hands, or men concealed, rushed in, and
overpowering Fitz, bound him with ropes, and he
was thus captured and taken to the old borough
of Chester, where he was afterwards tried as a
highway robber and hung in the year 1778. It is
said the girl was either tempted to this act of
treachery by the reward offered, or through jeal-
ousy from the attentions of Fitz to another girl of
the neighborhood. This history is authenticated
by having been repeated to boys born soon after
the end of the Revolutionary War, and by them
handed down in their old age, and it was obtained
directly from such men.

This McAfee property was owned for several
years by John Lewis, the father of J. Howard
Lewis, and he and his family occupied the house

40 FOX HUNTING.

from 1819 to 1823; during that time the neighbors
who visited them informed Mrs. Lewis that the
house was haunted, and asked her if she had
never heard at night the fall of a pistol from
the bed, as it had fallen in the scuffle that took
place when Fitzpatrick was captured; but Mrs.
Lewis had never heard it.

Bayard Taylor, in his Story of Kennett, gives a
romantic account of this Fitzpatrick, under the
name of "Sandy Flash," and of a fox hunt he par-
ticipated in ; and Mr. H. G. Ashmead, in his care-
fully compiled and interesting History of Delazvare
County, gives the West Chester version of this
man's exploits and haunts in Chester County,
under the name of "James Fitzpatrick," and he
says that Fitzpatrick was born in the old county
of Chester and served his apprenticeship as a
blacksmith, and that he first served in the army
of the Province, and until he deserted in 1777,
after having been flogged for some ofTence. Mr,
Ashmead's account of him is well worth the
reading.

CHAPTER VIIL

SOME OF THE HUNTS FROM 1853 TO 1860.

From 1853 up to about the sixties J. Howard
Lewis had, each year, a Christmas hunt with the
hounds from his home on the paper mill property,

Geo. W. Hill, M. F. H.

See pages 52. 110. 11.=

FOX HUNTING. 4I

followed by a dinner to his hunting friends, and a
royal good time they had. At one of these hunts
on a green Christmas, without snow or ice, George
Powell, with Jack Smith, had his hounds also on
the Crum creek valley, and a fox was started early
in the morning by both packs. In the run a
second fox was started and the hounds separated,
a part taking each fox. George Powell, Jack
Smith, and the author got with the part of the
packs that ran their fox down the Crum, and a hot
chase they had to Carr's thicket in Ridley town-
ship, passing the present Swarthmore country,
which was then open farm land and timber. At
Carr's thicket the fox had taken to the fence and
an out was made by the hounds, so the riders dis-
mounted to tighten girths and let their horses get
their wind. The hounds being of the best and
well experienced, soon found the trick the fox had
resorted to, and some of the older ones mounted
the fence to hunt the track, and when the course
of the fox was found and signaled to the other
hounds by the cry of the finder, they climbed the
fence in the direction indicated, and, giving
tongue, they hunted it till they found where
the fox had left the fence, and then away they all
ran in full cry through the thicket. Then there
was a mounting of horses as the fox burst from
cover for a run back over the same country, on a

42 FOX HUNTING.

return to Crum creek, with the eager hounds in
close pursuit and the riders following, keeping the
hounds in view, and thus we came back to the
Wallingford mill dam, which the fox, close
pressed, swam over, followed by the hounds. It
looked so much like a sure kill that Jack Smith, in
his excitement, pushed his horse into the dam up
to his saddle girths, intending to swim across after
the hounds, and it took very vigorous commands
to him from George Powell before he could be
induced to come back and ride with us to the
Howard Lewis' ford to cross the Crum. The fox
was holed on Jacob Hibberd's farm with the
hounds snapping at him as he went to earth. The
other riders, J. Howard Lewis, Edward Lewis,
James G. Stacey, and Eli D. Pierce Jr., had holed
their fox in the Turn hole after a hard run up and
down the creek, and, hearing our hounds, they
rode to meet us; and it being then long passed
the noon hour we gladly adjourned to Mr. Lewis'
house for our Christmas turkey dinner and to talk
over the sport of the day, and laugh over the
funny incidents, how this one got tumbled from
his horse, and that one got tangled in a fence,
and another got knocked out from the chase, etc.,
etc.

The writer was riding at the time a little
brown, well-bred Maryland mare, that had been

FOX HUNTING. 43

owned and hunted by Mark B. Hannum, and she
was gritty and high-strung and ready to jump at
anything in her way, but she was so quick and
eager, one had to sit her with watchful care
to keep in the saddle. She was also a good
road trotter in harness. Some time after this
she escaped from the field she was in, and
although she had been from Maryland for five
or six years, she started back for her old home,
and, getting on the Delaw^are railroad below
Wilmington, a train chased her for a mile, she
running at full speed, until, seeing other horses
in a field, she leaped the fence and galloped out
among them. This run and fright, however, split
her wind, and from that on she was a wheezer.

J. HOWARD lewis' DEN, AND THE OTHER PLACES
WHERE HUNTERS WERE MADE WELCOME.

When J. Howard Lewis built his handsome
new stone stable on his mill property, he con-
structed a cozy office and den room in it, which
was heated in winter by a little wood stove that
could soon be made comfortably hot; back of the
stable was a porch that this room opened out on,
and in summer this was a most comfortable loung-
ing place, with an attractive view of a bend in Crum
creek, with meadow and wooded hillside. The
room was furnished with old-fashioned furniture,

44 FOX HUNTING.

chairs, table, and an old bookcase desk with
closets combined. The walls were hung with
trophies of the chase, fox heads, brushes, crop
sticks, and hunting pictures, and in the corners
were piled old flint lock muskets and pistols, old
fowling pieces, bayonets, canes, and other an-
tiques, while the top of the bookcase held several
old tall leather hats of Revolutionary and 1812
times, and on the table was a silver ice pitcher and
glasses on a silver waiter ready for business.
There Mr. Lewis entertained his numerous friends
for many years, and on Sunday mornings there
were sure to be several collected, for Sunday was
a great visiting day among residents of the county
at that time. Here you would often meet Ed-
ward Lewis, Samuel C. Lewis, Henry B. Edwards,
General Edward F. Beale, Frank Field, George E.
Darlington, J. Edward Farnum, Henry E. Saul-
nier, Edgar T. Miller, Isaac M. Lewis, Samuel
Miller, George W. Hill, Dr. Rush S. Huidekoper,
George M. Lewis, James C. Hall, H. M. Ash, Jas.
D. Rhoades, Dr. Samuel P. Bartleson, C. Fallon
Lewis, Jared Darlington, Bird Dixey, Dory
Wright, William H. Corlies, Walter M. Sharpies,
William Little, and other well-known men in the
county, for the hospitality of Mr. Lewis had a wide
and extended reputation.

In the earlier hunting days there were many

FOX HUNTING. 45

places where the hunters were made welcome.
There was Edward Lewis, whose housekeeper
made ginger cakes that beat the band, and at his
house on Ridley creek, now used with the Media
water works, you were always welcome and cakes
and cider were in abundance; then there was Em-
mor Eachus, or ''Uncle Aime," as he was called,
and here you were sure to get pie, cakes, nuts,
cider, and something stronger if you wanted it; for
in those days there was no serious prejudice
against the moderate use of strong drink, and al-
most every country house had its home-made
wine; there was also Jacob Painter's, Washington
Bishop's, Pratt Bishop's, and others, where the
latch-string was always out.

HABITS OF THE FOX IN RUNNING.

In the early part of the hunting season, be-
ginning about the first of December, and through
the month of January, the fox, when started,
usually made his run in an extended circle, and
the hunter, after the experience of a run, knew
when he started him again about the course he
would take in his runs, and if a sight of him was
desired, as well as of the leading hounds in full
cry, the hunter could ride to a part of the course
where such view could be had by qiiietly sitting
on his horse and awaiting their coming. But in

46 FOX HUNTING.

February and later in the season, when you struck
an old dog fox, which you mostly did, as the bitch
foxes would rarely run at this season, your fox,
after a circle to get his bearings, straightened for
his own country, he having likely traveled ten,
fifteen or twenty miles for this visit. If it were a
good scent-laying day, then you had a hard ride,
straight away, with your hounds running with few
faults. If the wind was against the way the fox
had to take for his home, he was forced to run
out of his course and slanting to the wind, as an
old fox will not run in the teeth of the wind, if he
can avoid it, knowing well that it is not only
damaging to his running powers, but that it also
carries his scent to the following hounds, directing
them straight to him. This head wind will make
the fox change his course in long tacks, like the
sailing tacks of a vessel, and this is necessary to
prevent his being driven too far away from the
place where he has a safe rocky retreat, if he can
reach it. This is the time his greatest cunning
comes into play, for if he cannot outwit the hounds
and throw them ofif the scent and thus gain a rest,
he must find a safe harbor to bury himself in, or
be killed on the ground; but he will not hole if he
can avoid it until he reaches his home. This
makes a long, hard run for the hunter, and tries
the wind and staying qualities of his horse. A

FOX HUNTING. 47

good fox at the start, when fresh, can outrun the
swiftest fox hound, but he has not the endurance
of the well-bred hound, and his cunning alone can
save him in a lons^ run.

CHAPTER IX.

THE OLD ROSE TREE TAVERN AND BENJAMIN
ROGERS, LANDLORD.

J. Morgan Baker, one of the best landlords
the old Rose Tree ever had (and it was built in
the eighteenth century), came to this house as
owner and landlord in the spring of 1859, having
purchased the property from the Cummins family
who had owned and run it for many years before,
in fact, from 1833. Mr. Baker sold the property
and removed from it in the spring of 1864, and
John Graham, being the owner and landlord, sold
it, in the spring of 1866, to Thomas B. Miller,
who was the landlord until the fall of 1867, when he
sold it to James D. Velott, and he in turn sold it
to his brother, Joseph D. Velott, in January of
1868, the brother becoming the landlord; and he
sold it back to James D. Velott in June, 1870, who
sold it to George E. DarHngton, trustee, in April,
1872, it being held by him in trust for J. Howard
Lewis, J. Edward Farnum, Fairman Rogers, and

48 FOX HUNTING.

Samuel C. Lewis, the real owners under this deed;
the purchase being made by them to secure the
tavern stand for the present landlord, Benjamin
Rogers, and to have a permanent place for the
keeping of the club hounds; for it will be seen
that this old hotel property had changed its land-
lords quite frequently in these later years, and the
kind of accommodations the club was to have were
very uncertain. "Uncle Benny Rogers," as he is
familiarly called, went to the Lamb tavern, in
Springfield township, as landlord in the spring of
1868, and to the Rose Tree tavern in the spring
of 1872.

J. Edward Farnum had been an active mem-
ber of the club from about 1861; Samuel C.
Lewis and Fairman Rogers having joined some-
what later.

The Rose Tree Club, organized as before
stated, packed its hounds during the hunting
season at this old tavern property from the time
J. Morgan Baker became the landlord until some
time in 1870, at which time, Thos. Garrett being
landlord and tenant under the James D. Velott
ownership, and some disagreement with Garrett
having arisen, the hounds were taken from the
Rose Tree and packed, first at the Orchard prop-
erty of George E. Darlington, near Media, and
then at the Lamb tavern in Springfield, then kept

Bcnjiimin Rogers,
Landlonl Rose Tree Inn.

FOX HUNTING. 49

by Benny Rogers, and were packed there until
Benny removed to the Rose Tree. This was the
first acquaintance the club members had with
Benny Rogers and his most estimable wife and
accomplished landlady. Benny was known as the
"Quaker Landlord" from his using the plain
language, not that he was a member of that so-
ciety, or because he dressed in their peculiar garb,
but from his use of the word "thee" in addressing
any one. Benny also has a mild, persuasive man-
ner, and does not delight in giving strong drink
to inebriated persons, who are gently admonished
to take a **parilla." Benny was never known to
take a drink of liquor at his own bar, or anywhere
else, for that matter, and he seldom goes from
home. He has raised a family of six or more chil-
dren, boys and girls, and all are a credit to him,
and none of intemperate habit.

So satisfactory was the acquaintance with
Benny and his good wife that there was a deter-
mination not to part from him; hence the bring-
ing of him to the Rose Tree. Here, as landlord,
and with Mrs. Rogers' skill and ability in the table
entertainment, and particularly in the serving of
the monthly roast pig dinners to the club mem-
bers, they made a great popularity and notoriety
for the old house throughout all this part of
eastern Penns5"]vania; and no man who has sat at

50 FOX HUNTING.

these monthly club suppers (and many guests have
been entertained there from all parts of the United
States, as well as some Canadians and English-
men), will ever, in life, forget the pleasure, satis-
faction, and enjoyment he has received at these
meals. The popularity of these suppers remains
since Mrs. Rogers' death under the able manage-
ment of her daughter, Mrs. Green, who exhibits all
the skill and ability of her mother. The memory of
Mrs. Rogers will ever be dear to the members of
the club, and the respect and love they bear it will
be lasting.

As the old Rose Tree Inn is so thoroughly
identified with the club, it may be interesting to
give some insight into the history of it. The
present stone eastern end of the old house was
standing, we have good authority for saying, as
far back as 1796, and perhaps much earlier, as its
location is on one of the old leading highways of
the county, which was laid out and opened by
the Commissioners of William Penn. Attached
to the western end of this old stone house for many
years was a frame addition, which was removed in
1837, and the present stone western end was built
by George Cummins, the then owner and landlord;
his widow, Mrs. Matilda Cummins, keeping the
house after his death for many years; and in her
time it was celebrated for its sleighing parties, as it

FOX HUNTING. 5I

perhaps had been for years before, it being one of
several taverns of the county which kept open
house, as it was called, during the winter months,
for sleighing parties, and where music was fur-
nished for dancing, as well as good hot suppers.
The other open houses for these jolly parties being
the President, on the West Chester road; the Star
tavern, on the street road; Stamps tavern, on the
West Chester and Wilmington road; the Seven
Stars tavern, at Village Green, and the Practical
Farmer tavern, below Marcus Hook, on the Wil-
mington road, just over the Delaware State line.
It was not unusual for some of the hunters, as
well as other young men, to take the entire round
of these houses on the same night, in J. Howard
Lewis' large four-horse sleigh, and to dance at
each, as there were always plenty of pretty
country girls ready and willing to enjoy the
country dances.

George Cummins purchased the Rose Tree
property of Isaac Cochran in April, 1833, who
had purchased it of Robert Thomas in June, 1801,
who had purchased it of John Maxwell Nesbit and
David Hayfield Conyngham in June, 1795. They
purchased it at a sheriff's sale made by Wil-
liam Gibbons, High Sheriff of the county of
Chester, of which Delaware county was then a
part, the deed being made in September, 1774.

4

52 FOX HUNTING.

This shows the antiquity of the old tavern (for
they were all called inns or taverns in those days).
The above record of title is carried as far back as
the public records of Delaware County, at Media,
show, and to carry the title back to William Penn,
we must resort to the public records in Chester
county, at West Chester.

CHAPTER X.

RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE CLUB.

On October 4th, 1873, the club was re-
organized, and George W, Hill was made Presi-
dent; Frederick Fairlamb, Vice-President; Samuel
Miller, Secretary, and George M. Lewis, Treas-
urer. The President acted as Master of Hounds;
there was no Huntsman.

The book kept by George M. Lewis, as
Treasurer, shows the membership as follows:

In 1873: J. Howard Lewis, Henry E. Saul-
nier, Mark Pennell, George M. Lewis, Theodore
Wright, Robert Ash, J. Edward Farnum, William
L Leiper, George W. Hill, Frederick Fairlamb,
Edgar T. Miller, Samuel W. Hawley, Samuel Mil-
ler, Samuel C. Lewis, William F. Miskey, William
M. Lloyd, Andrew T. Walker, Fairman Rogers,
Isaac M. Lewis, William H. Jenks, Albert P.

FOX HUNTING. 53

Lewis, Edward Worth, and I. Lawrence Halde-
man.

In 1874 there were added to the membership
Hst the names of Burd Dixey, Francis F. Rowland,
J, Mitchell Baker, Dr. Thomas C. Stellwagen, Ed-
ward T. Davis, A. Morris Herkness, A. J. Cassatt,
Moncure Robinson Jr., William H. Corlies,
Samuel Welsh Jr., Dr. Daniel Bray, Charles B.
Sprogell, and Charles H. Townsend.

And in 1875 and 1876 the following names
were added to the list of membership: Davis
Lewis, William H. Miller, Rush S. Huidekoper,
Isaac L. Miller, F. T. Walton, Frank Thomson,
and J. M. Stoddard.

There was no contributor membership during
these years, and the annual dues of members were
fixed at $5.

MEMBERSHIP OF 1877.

In 1877 the club had a membership of thirty
active hunting members and fourteen contributing
members. The by-laws provided that the mem-
bership should be confined to residents of Dela-
ware and Chester Counties and Philadelphia.
The annual dues of active members were increased
to $10, with an initiation fee of $io.

After Dr. Daniel Bray, Charles H. Townsend,
Moncure Robinson Jr. and Dr. R. S. Huidekoper

54 FOX HUNTING.

joined, these men and other members, all active
riders, kept horses expressly for hmiting; and
there was hard riding in the hunting field, the
ordinary post and rail and stake and rider fences
forming no obstacle, as the horses with their
riders took these leaps without hesitation, fear, or
disposition to shirk.

FIRST ROSE TREE CLUB RACES.

Soon after these Philadelphia men joined the
Rose Tree Club, races were instituted on the old
Rose Tree track, with the steeple chase course
across the present Bullock farm, over the post and
rail fences as they stood, with added stake and
rider fence and hurdle jumps, and also with a
stone wall jump on the track grounds. Hurdles
were constructed on the track for hurdle
races; and flat races and farmer races were also
popular.

The people of Delaware and Chester Counties
and Philadelphians took great interest in the
races, and they with the farmers of the county,
who turned out in great numbers, crowded the
race grounds. Many handsome turnouts, four-
in-hand coache's, tandem and double teams, with
single teams of all descriptions, and horseback
riders, both ladies and gentlemen, filled up the
inner grounds of the racing field. The club, then

FOX HUNTING. 55

as now, was noted for its hospitality, and freely
entertained all guests who chose to participate.

The races, flat, hurdle, and steeple chase,
were all ridden by gentlemen riders, and were well
and spiritedly contested. The club had many
good riders, among them being J. Howard and
Sam Lewis, Huidekoper, Robinson, Townsend,
Bray, Miller, Worth, Mitch. Baker, and others,
who also distinguished themselves in the racing
field. Jockies and professionals were barred from
the track. The farmers' races were always an at-
tractive feature and the entries were of true
farm working horses. It was surely a gala day for
fine sport, good fellowship, and enjoyment. The
prizes were silver cups, or goblets, crop sticks,
saddles and bridles; gambling was never permitted
on the race course, nor at the club house, and
card playing, dice, or other like games have never
been popular with the members, and not indulged
in.

Shortly before the death of our old fox-
hunting friend, John Mahony, while attending one
of the Hunt races, he was knocked down and
senseless by a bolting horse. He was carried to
a room in the Rose Tree Inn, and, being an old
man, was nursed anxiously during the night, show-
ing no sign of consciousness. Toward morning
his wife, who had been sent for, arrived. Her

56 FOX HUNTING.

wails brought him to, and opening his eyes he said :
"Becky, did ye feed the pups before ye left?"
Mahony's pups always shared the kitchen fire and
comfort with the family.

MEMBERSHIP IN 1877.

In 1877 the active members of the club were :
J. Howard Lewds, Henry E. Saulnier, George M.
Lewis, George W. Hill, Frederick Fairlamb,
Samuel Miller, Samuel C. Lewis, Fairman Rogers,
A. J. Cassatt, Edward Worth, Frank Thomson,
William H. Corlies, Dr. T. C. Stellwagen, Dr.
Daniel Bray, Theodore Wright, Charles H.
Townsend, Dr. R. S. Huidekoper, Samuel Welsh
Jr., J. Mitchell Baker, Moncure Robinson Jr., W.
H. Jenks, William Lloyd, Davis Lewis, William H.
Miller, George Young, S. Frank Sharpless, Charles
Camblos Jr., W. G. Abbott, Dr. J. W. White,
George E. Darlington, and J. Edward Farnum.

The contributing members were William F.
Miskey, L Lawrence Haldeman, T. Burd Dixey,
Charles B. Sprogell, Isaac Miller, J. M. Stoddard,
John L. Evans, Horace R, Manley, Samuel W.
Seeds, William P. Eyre, and William I. Leiper.

The officers of the club were : George W. Hill,
President; Henry E. Saulnier, Vice-President;
William H. Corlies, Secretary and Treasurer: the
President acting as Master of Hounds, and he ap-

o

FOX HUNTING. 57

pointed all committees. The by-laws provided for
the election of an executive committee, but if
any was elected, they do not appear to have per-
formed active duties.

CHAPTER XI.

ERECTION OF THE CLUB HOUSE IN 1881.

In 1881 the present club house was erected
under an agreement between Benjamin Rogers,
the owner of the property, and George W. Hill
and William H. Corlies, trustees for the Rose
Tree Fox Hunting Qub, dated April 23d, 1881,
which stipulated that the club should have the
privilege, at its own cost, to erect the club house
at the place where it is now located, for its enjoy-
ment, for the term of fifteen years from that date,
at the end of which term the house was to go back
into the possession of Mr. Rogers, and the club
could then give it up or become tenants; the club
reserving the right to remove the house at any
time during the term by paying to Mr. Rogers the
sum of $100, for each year his ground had been
occupied by it. The most friendly relationship
has always existed between Mr. Rogers and his
family and the club members, and the suppers sup-

58 FOX HUNTING.

plied monthly on the regular meeting nights have
invariably been satisfactory to the members and
their numerous guests.

INCORPORATION OF THE CLUB.

On November 22d, 1881, the club was in-
corporated by Honorable Thomas J. Clayton,
President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas
of Delaware County (who afterwards was a mem-
ber of the club to the time of his death), under
the name of the "Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club,"
the incorporators being Fairman Rogers, A. J,
Cassatt, George W. Hill, J. Howard Lewis, Henry
E, Saulnier, Samuel C. Lewis, J. Edward Farnuni,
Rush S. Huidekoper, J. Mitchell Baker, Moncure
Robinson Jr., WilHam H. Corlies, George M.
Lewis, and George E. Darlington; and the Board
of Directors named in the charter were: George
W. Hill, J. Howard Lewis, Henry E. Saulnier, and
William H. Corlies. Under the by-laws, the fol-
lowing officers were elected : President, George W.
Hill; Vice-Presidents, Henry E. Saulnier and J.
Howard Lewis; and Secretary and Treasurer, Wil-
liam H. Corlies. The by-laws called for the elec-
tion of a Master of Hounds, but stipulated that the
President may hold the ofifice of Master of Hounds,
and the Secretary that of Treasurer, and Mr. Hill
acted both as President and Master of Hounds.

FOX HUNTING. 59

The membership was limited to one hundred, in-
cluding active and contributing.

MEMBERSHIP IN 1882.

In 1882 the active members on the roll were
as follows : George W. Hill, Henry E. Saulnier,
J. Howard Lewis, WilHam H. Codies, Samuel C.
Lewis, J. Edward Farnum, J. Mitchel Baker, Fair-
man Rogers, George M. Lewis, Dr. Rush S.
Huidekoper, A. J. Cassatt, Moncure Robinson
Jr., George E. Darlington, William H. Miller, Ed-
ward Worth, Frank Thomson, Charles H. Town-
send, S. Frank Sharpless, W. G. Abbott, Alfred
Biddle, Alexander W. Biddle, Richard S. Ed-
wards, Isaac Johnson, Charles B. Rhodes, W.
H. Gaw, F. C. Macauley, A. L. Wetherill, Harry
W. Biddle, Harry Carson Jr., John H. Irwin,
Edward F. Beale Jr., Aubrey Jones, Dr. J.
B. Kinney, Dr. Thomas Biddle, Dr. J. Wilkes
O'Neill, Edward J. Etting, A. E. Harvey, R.
D. Barclay, Henry B, Edwards, Roger F.
Sturgis, Rudolph Ellis, Thomas Clyde Jr., Dr.
Samuel P. Bartleson, George W. Eachus, Walter
G. Wilson, James W. Mercur, Richard L. Ash-
hurst, J. W. Nevin, I. Engle Cochran Jr., Walter
S. Massey, James L. Fisher, John R. Flower, Dr.
Kingston Goddard Jr., Dr. Robert A. Given,
Frank Field. James P. Scott, John B. Robinson,

6o FOX HUiMTING.

James D. Rhoads, Kirk B. Wells, Samuel J.
Sharpless, William Struthers, Humphrey M. Ash,
Ellicott Fisher, Dunbar Price, Clement N. Wil-
liams, S. L. Levy, S. Harlan Price, J. Edward
Carpenter, B. K. Jamison, J. Howard Lewis Jr.,
Vanderbilt Allen, Herbert Coxe, William Wayne
Jr., W. H. McCallum, Charles E. Mather, H. Carl-
ton Adams, General Edward F. Beale, Nathan
Brooke, J. T. Bailey, Louis F. Betz, Frederick W.
Fotterall, Philip P. Peace, Jared Darhngton,
Rufus E. Shapley, James C. Hall, Dr. William S.
Little.

The contributing members on the roll were :
William L Leiper, L Lawrence Haldeman, J. M.
Stoddard, John L. Evans, Samuel H. Seeds, Wil-
liam P. Eyre, Dr. Francis F. Rowland, H. W.
Bickley, George Yarnall, Charles A. Wells.

The honorary members on the roll were:
Jefferson Shaner, Jesse J. Hickman, Mark Pennell,
John J. Rowland, John Mahony, Samuel Miller,
Alexander Pope Jr., Wm. M. Lloyd.

The riding dress of members at this time was
a scarlet coat and waistcoat, riding breeches,
high silk hat, top boots, and crop stick. The
Master of Hounds, Huntsman, and members
hunted in this costume for several years, with few
exceptions; but the high hat was only worn by a
few.

o

^

()

S!

p^

:i

<+-!

o

o

X

<u

T1

^

rn

-M

>. ;

r/j

oi

o

w

1-1

o

O

o

,i ,

rt

^

<u

o

o

ctf

*l~l

Oh

CD

^ fe

FOX HUNTING. 6l

SOME OF THE HARD RIDERS AND THEIR HORSES.

Among the members of the club were many
good and fearless riders at this time, as there had
been in previous years.

Our old friend, J. Howard Lewis St., had
always been a good horseman, and was the owner
of a number of fast trotting horses, among them
being his little bay mare, "Sunday," and with
which he won many a trotting race, usually under
saddle. Among his hunting horses he boasted of
"Old Jesse," "Old Billy," "Billy Mulligan," "Gab-
erlunzie," "Jackson," "Tam O'Shanter," "Ivan-
hoe" (or "Dan," as he was frequently called),
"Black Bess," and "Baalbec," and he was always
ready to give a mount to a friend. It was on his
horses that the first lady riders of this county fol-
lowed the Rose Tree pack. Howard tells many
good stories of his hunts, and among others he
tells of following the hounds, mounted on "Gaber-
lunzie," accompanied by Miss M., who rode the
mare, "Black Bess." The hounds were running
well with the fox not far ahead, and George Yar-
nall, who rode at 230 pounds, was in the advance,
when his horse struck a fence and down fell horse
and driver. Howard pressed on, and as he came
up to Yarnall, struggling on the ground, he saw
that he was vigorously kicking himself loose from
his fallen horse, and, knowing him to be strong and

62 FOX HUNTING.

able, Howard called to Miss M, to come on, and
away they rode, leaving Yarnall to help himself
from the ground, which he manfully did, and
Howard says before he and Miss M. had gone two
fields away, Yarnall was pounding alongside of
them again and was soon in the lead.

Sam Lewis, in his earlier days with the club,
rode a little, sprung-kneed black horse, that was
wiry and gritty and ready to go wherever Sam
pointed him, and Sam didn't hesitate to point him
anywhere, when he was in the mood, and a pusher
would do it. On one occasion, in a ride above the
Snakehouse woods, where there was a wall built
across the head of a hollow to prevent washing,
Sam, seeing it, called to the other horsemen to fol-
low, and away he galloped on ''Blacky" for the
wall, and over they went, disappearing from view
on the other side. No one followed him, and it
was found the ground where the horse alighted
was some ten feet below the level of ground on
the upper side of the wall; but the horse and Sam
were all right. At another time, when riding to
the hounds and following close in with them, Sam,
on ''Blacky," rode from the field at a fence at the
side of the road, and Tom Bishop, who was follow-
ing close and knew the danger of the jump, called
to Sam not to take it, but Sam, in the lead, called
back, "you're too late," and sailed over the fence

FOX HUNTING. 63

and down into the road, some twelve or fifteen
feet below, coming oft' with horse and rider
sound. Sam for many years afterwards rode the
old horse "Tom," or ''Tarn O'Shanter," and did
much hunting, racing, and steeple chasing with
him.

J. Edward Farnum rode the comparatively
light-built but muscular white mare that had been
owned and ridden by Bill Crosly for several years,
and Bill was a reckless and hard rider. This mare
was a splendid hunter and a high jumper, never
refusing fence, wall, or gate, and Mr. Farnum, al-
though not a reckless rider, more than once took
the courage out of boasters by putting her over a
new four or five rail fence where they dared not
follow.

"pandora."

Probably the most celebrated and best known
mare that hunted with the Rose Tree pack was
Dr. Rush Shippen Huidekoper's white dappled
"Pandora," or "Dora," as she was affectionately
called by those nearest to her.

George W. Hill brought "Pandora" from
West Virginia, and while he did not know her
pedigree, she undoubtedly was seven-eighths, if
not full throughbred. Mr. Hill sold her at one
of his sales to J. Howard Lewis Sr. She was
about four years old, and Howard could neither

64 FOX HUNTING.

drive or ride her with any satisfaction, and as for
menial work, this mare, without known name at
that time, was too grand a lady to submit to it.
When put into the paper mill team, after refusing
light harness work, she sulked, balked, and refused
to move, and when beaten would lie down in the
chains and let the other horses drag her, rather
than either pull or walk. Under saddle she was
ugly and wilful, and all the pounding over the head
and ears with the crop stick couldn't conquer her;
so Howard gave her up as a bad lot, and handed
her over to Dr. Huidekoper in a horse trade, in
1877, just on the eve of the Doctor's departure, in
March, for Europe (after he had taken his medical
degree at the University of Pennsylvania), to visit
the European hospitals: so the mare was turned
out on a farm for the spring, summer, and fall
months and until the Doctor returned from Europe
the following November. When the Doctor took
her up he first gave her a trial to a light buggy,
from the Orchard and up the Providence road.
"Pandora" went quietly along until the foot of
Sandy Bank hill was reached and there stopped
stif¥ and fast, evidently preparing herself for a fight.
After one or two mild efforts to get her to move,
without success, the Doctor laid the lines across
the dash, took his mail from his pocket and quietly
read his letters and newspapers. For a half hour

o

FOX HUNTING. 65

the mare stood in the hot sun Hke a statue; then
she began to get uneasy, resting first one leg, then
another, shaking her head and moving it from side
to side, but still the Doctor patiently sat, paying no
attention to her. Finding herself beaten in her
game of wait, and that there was to be no fight,
she turned her head for a look at her master, and
seeing he was apparently enjoying the quiet rest,
without further hesitation she gave up and walked
quietly up the hill, never after giving the Doctor
further balking trouble.

"Pandora" was not a heavy-weight mare, but
was muscular and well put together, and she car-
ried Dr. Huidekoper through many a hard hunt
and many a closely contested race across country,
and the Doctor then turned the scales at more
than 190 pounds.

"Pandora" won many steeple chases at the
club races, and she and the Doctor were hard to
follow in the hunting field, for "Pandora" was
ready to take anything, and took her jumps in a
rush that sent her far beyond the obstacle, be it
fence, ditch, or wall, and she was game to the last.
In one of her hunts, which lasted for hours, and
in which the hounds and fox were several times in
the same field, and it looked like a death, and the
hunters were riding hard for the brush, "Pandora"
and the Doctor stuck to it until the mare was so

66 FOX HUNTING.

exhausted she had to be left at a farm barn for the
night, being too much used up to get her home.
The Doctor occasionally loaned her to a friend for
a hunt, and on one occcasion he loaned her to a
young gentleman of Philadelphia, who mounted
her in Media and started for the Rose Tree to
hunt, but the mare was not going that way, and
ran the young man almost into Chester before he
succeeded in getting her stopped.

But "Dora" was gentle and not difficult to
handle with the Doctor, and Miss M., his sister-in-
law, rode her without trouble. She had, however,
a playful disposition to elevate her heels in single
harness, but even in this she did not aim to do
harm, for she invariably lifted her feet high above
the dash board and over the heads of the occupants
of the wagon. The Doctor drove her without
blinds, check rein, or kicking strap, and when
asked why he did so, his answer was, he wanted
the mare to have full chance to kick clear of the
buggy. Finally, when "Dora" and the Doctor
gave up fox hunting, and she went into business
use in Philadelphia, the mare learned, after a sharp
fall on the slippery cobble stones, that showing her
heels in the city was neither profitable nor grace-
ful, and she gave up this amusement on the paving
and only indulged in it when she got out on the
country roads. Any one seeing her standing on

FOX HUNTING. 67

the Streets with the Doctor's big buggy wagon,
unhitched and head dow^n, would not have taken
her to be the high-spirited, mettlesome animal she
was; but with it all she had a great affection for
the Doctor and would follow him about in harness
or under saddle Hke a faithful dog. "Dora" be-
came more extensively known throughout the
state from the military use she got in the camps
of the National Guards, while the Doctor was a
major on the staff of General George R. Snowden,
and in parades in Philadelphia; and in her ten years
of such service she frequently distinguished herself
in camp in the leaps she took over a barrier made
of muskets, boxes, or other material that could be
piled up, for the mare was not afraid to face any-
thing she was asked to leap. "Pandora," in her
old age, had to be killed, in Philadelphia, but her
end was glorious, for she was served up in steaks
to some choice friends at a dinner at the Phila-
delphia Club, and while all pronounced the steaks
delicious, yet when the nature of the meat was dis-
closed, some there were who found the dinner
difficult to retain.

Other good horses there were, both in the
racing and in the hunting field.

Charles H. Townsend's thoroughbred horse,
"Rummey," won most of the early flat and hurdle
races.

5

68 FOX HUNTING,

Moncure Robinson Jr. had a dun horse,
named "The Farmer," that could peg along with
wonderful endurance and jump anything. This
horse won a basket of champagne bet by carrying
three men weighing together four hundred and
seventy pounds, over a three and a half feet hurdle
on the Rose Tree track. Dr. J, William White
rode this horse at the Ambler races, Washington,
in a three and a half miles race, and won against
good horses, that were expected to be the winners,
by a good lead. Dr. White rode a number of
times with the Rose Tree hounds.

Walter S. Massey rode a couple of winners at
the club races, and rode well.

Fairman Rogers' great mares were called
"Josephine" and "Dolly."

A. J. Cassatt and his brother, J. G. Cassatt,
rode with the club hounds for two winters.

Dr. Daniel Bray had a number of good horses
that he rode in the races and with the hounds, and
he rode hard and well. He was the owner of the
black gelding, "Ivanhoe," and traded him to J.
Howard Lewis Sr.

"George the Fourth," owned by William G.
Huey, was a hard horse to beat in a steeple chase,
or long flat race, and won several races. At
the Belmont course he fell with his rider. Dr. M.
H. Cryer, at the water jump, landing the Doctor

FOX HUNTING. 69

on the ground by the breaking of a stirrup strap;
but he pluckily held on to the horse, and,
mounting again, came in winner, riding with one
stirrup.

"Orderly" was another good horse, and from
Mr. Henry R. Hatfield we get the following ac-
count of him: "Orderly" was born near Charlottes-
ville, Va., sire and dam unknown, and sent to Ring-
gold W. Lardner as a charger for use in the First
Troop, Philadelphia- City Cavalry. The horse was
obstinate and evinced such a desire to buck, jump,
and run away that he was useless for that purpose.
Mr. Lardner, however, rode him for two seasons
with the hounds of the Rose Tree hunt. When
the horse first suddenly made up his mind to take
a four-rail fence, he went over it like a bird, seem-
ingly clearing it with a foot and a half to spare.
When Mr. Lardner died, the horse became the
property of Mr. Hatfield, and was hunted regularly
with the Rose Tree hounds. He won many
prizes for high jumping, steeple chasing, and
flat racing. After a few years of handling, he
became an excellent charger, though tales are
still told of how he would, in camp, suddenly
take unnecessary jumps to the amazement of by-
standers.

Another well-known horse was "Rosinante,"
owned and ridden first by George W. Hill, both

70 FOX HUNTING.

in hunting and racing, about 1880, and afterwards
by Mr. Carroll Smyth. "Rosinante" was a high
jumper and an excellent hunter, and admirably
handled both by Mr. Hill and by Mr. Smyth. He
was steady, accurate, straight as an arrow over an
obstacle, and was probably one of the prettiest
jumpers in the field, with plenty of endurance, too.

Another horse well-known was "Scalplock,"
owned- and ridden by Mrs. Walter R. Furness.
With a will of iron and a mouth of velvet, owing
to the handling of Mrs. Furness, the horse was
probably one of the strangest combinations of
good nature and obstinancy, combined with all the
best quahties of a man's horse.

The first races were run on the Griffith,
Darby, track, by eleven subscribers from the club,
the prizes being two large hunting pictures. The
first race was run by five for one of the pictures,
and was won by Charles H. Townsend on "Rum-
mey."

The second race was run by the other six,
and the picture was won by Dr. Huidekoper on
"Artaxerxes."

The Rose Tree steeple chase course, of two
and a half miles, was, as now, principally across
country, over what is now the Bullock farm,
formerly owned by John Ottey, and afterwards oc-
cupied by John J. Rowland, and the jumps were

FOX HUNTING. 7 1

over stiff four-rail fences, with some hurdles and
a wall.

The members' race over this course had such
riders as J. Howard Lewis, George W. Hill,
Samuel C. Lewis, Dr. Huidekoper, Townsend,
Robinson, Dr. Bray, George M. Lewis, Worth,
Ash, and Massey.

The members' two-mile special steeple race on
this course was for a silver cup, marked "Pre-
sented to the Club by Meredith Norris, 1880."
He was a young Philadelphian who frequently
rode in the Rose Tree races, and since dead. It
is known as the "Meredith Norris Cup," and the
winners were entitled to have their names and the
names of their horses inscribed on the cup, with
the date of their winning. The cup bears only the
following race inscriptions :

"Won by Geo. W. Hill, on 'Rosinante,' in
Members' Steeple Chase, Fall Meeting, Oct. 9th,
1880."

"Won by J. H. Lewis Jr., on 'Placid Joe,'
Members' Steeple Chase, Fall Meeting. Oct. 6th,
1881."

In more recent times the races and hurdle
jumping have been well contested by J. Howard
Lewis Jr., Dr. Charles A. Dohan, Samuel D.
Riddle, Leander W. Riddle, William M. Kerr,
William A. Stotesbury, George R. Fox. Edward

^2 FOX HUNTING.

B. Chase, E. Sanford Hatch, H. Percival Glen-
dinning, and others, with entries of good horses
and superior riding. The contests have been
spirited and exciting, and the races have continued
highly successful, attracting many of the best
citizens of the county and of the city of Philadel-
phia, as well as of neighboring towns and
counties; the farmers' race still being a prominent
feature and hard ridden, every rider doing his best
to win, in his own way.

Up to the fall of 1895 the races were under
racing rules established by the Club's race com-
mittees, who adopted the approved track rules of
the day, as far as they would apply to club mem-
bers.

About June, 1895, for the purpose of en-
abling some of the members who had racing
horses to enter their horses in association races
on other tracks, the Club, by its Master of
Hounds, joined the National Hunt Association,
and the Rose Tree races have been, since that
time, run under the rules of that association.

FOX HUNTING. 73

CHAPTER XII.

THE ROSE TREE INN, WITH ITS MANY
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS.

The following article was published in the
Philadelphia Times, of August 23d, 1885:

"Fox hunting in Delaware and Chester
Counties is as old as the counties themselves — as
old as the times of William Penn and the Pro-
prietary Governors. The young men of the pres-
ent day in these counties who take to the hunt
inherit their love of it, for their fathers, grand-
fathers, and great-grandfathers took pride in a
mount and a rough scurry across the hills and
valleys that slope to the Delaware in chase of poor
Reynard. In no place in the United States has
the pastime been so long kept up or so largely
practiced. The early days saw no regular meets,
no scarlet coats, no master of the hounds, and
none of the modern day attributes of the perfect
hunt, but the sport was as keen, the chase as
ardent, the runs as fierce, and the jumps as bold
as the modern hunters dare boast of. Private
parties owned the packs, and a few congenial
spirits who loved the old English excitement kept
the sport alive. The present Rose Tree inn, on the
old Providence road, is a double stone dwelling.

74 FOX HUNTING.

not differing much in its outside architecture from
other mansions of the kind in the neighborhood,
nor from the ordinary country inns of eastern
Pennsylvania. The earhest portion of the hotel
was built in 1809, and was duplicated by an addi-
tional stone building on the east in 1836, during
the time George Cummings kept the hostelry.
Prior to the first stone building there was an old
red frame building — a relic of the Colonial days
and good King George III — on the site, and
'neath two great poplars swung the sign of the
'Rose Tree,' with its rose bush, which some of
the old residenters can recall. This old sign was
lately found in a disused hay-rick in the vicinity,
and was handed over to the hunting club, who
prize it very much.

"the inn in early times.

"John Kirk, who lives within a stone's throw
of the inn, and who is a remarkably well-preserved
specimen of the old-time country gentleman, can
well remember the old frame inn and its early
proprietorship under the Cochrans — ^James, who
was the first keeper, and then his son, Isaac.
Changing hands with the rushing changes of time,
the old inn comes down patched and altered
until the present era, but always retaining its old-
time title and ancient reputation. After the

FOX HUNTING. 75

hostelry passed from the Cummings family it was
kept for a short time by William Beebe, and then
went into the hands of J. Morgan Baker, the
present well-known keeper of the Delaware
County prison. Under Morg's regime, beginning
in 1858, the present Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club
may be said to have entered on its career. Baker
laid out and built the present half-mile track ad-
joining the inn, where the fall and spring races
are now held. It was in Baker's time the old
hunters of the present club took their first lessons.
The kennels were tended by him, and once or
oftener a week boon spirits who gloried in the
chase during the season met at the old Rose Tree.
Well do we remember them ! Some time has
touched and in them softened the old boyish
racket and spirit with which they were filled of a
keen, frosty morning, when the light flurry of
snow threw over the hillside the silvery mantle of
winter beauty, they met to give the cunning fox a
death chase — the eager hounds, the mettled steeds,
the volunteer whippers-in, and the idle gathering
which met round the heels of the hvmters to sing
praises of this or that famous leap or run of days
before. And there was 'May,' faithful old slut —
as fine a fox hound as ever lived. Peace to her
ashes, for she has long since ceased to vex Rey-
nard!

/o fox hunting.

"who composed the hunt.
"And who was gathered there of that frosty
morning crowd? Why, there is Howard Lewis,
who was and still is — and always will be — one of
the most active of the Rose Tree Hunt — he whom
'age doth not wither nor custom stale' in the ten-
acity with which he presides at Rose Tree suppers,
nor in his love for the chase, and who was the
first President of the club under its early and in-
complete organization. A hereditary fox hunter,
he — lover of horse and dog, and patron of the
chase. There also in the mount I see the youthful
Ned Farnham — now, alas ! gone to the happy
hunting grounds — no less a sturdy lover of a
cross-country dash than Lewis, full of ardor for the
scamper when the fox is heard away. Mr. Farn-
ham was until his death a staunch friend and sup-
porter of the club. Of the old organizers and
hunters were Tom Bishop, Wash and Pratt Bishop,
Morg. Baker, George Darlington, Reece and Ned
Lewis, Ned Worrall, and Ed. Howard. Many,
alas ! are gone, but they were stalwart boys in
their days, and 'the devil take the hindmost' was
their cry as the hunt oft trended in its wild and
fierce glee toward the divide of Ridley and Crum
creeks and down into the nooks and valleys be-
yond. Poor Reynard's chances were few when
this hunt gathered and the hounds were in full

FOX HUNTING. JJ

cry, with hunters close behind. In the old days
of these undisciplined but earnest hunts it was the
custom to hang near the kennels at the Rose Tree
a slate, on which the laggards at the meet could
learn the direction in which the chase lay and catch
up ere the finish.

"the present club.

"The Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club as it
exists to-day has a history of a decade or more.
Among its members it boasts the best and most
fearless riders in Delaware county and those most
ardently devoted to the chase in the city of Phila-
delphia. Mr. Fairman Rogers, a gentleman
widely known for his love of field sports, quick
relish for the hunt and chase, and study of the
noblest of all animals — the horse — is one of the
leading members. Alexander J. Cassatt, Frank
Thomson, James P. Scott, Charles H. Godfrey, C.
H. Townsend, Aubrey Jones, Moncure Robinson,
and Dr. Rush S. Huidekoper, of Philadelphia, and
J. M. Baker, George E. Darlington, Howard and
Samuel Lewis, Samuel Miller, George Lewis,
William H. Lewis, and many others of the
county, are members. Dr. Huidekoper has been-
connected with the hunt for a number of years,
and his enthusiasm and liberality have done much
to build the club up and make it what it is — the

78 FOX HUNTING.

finest fox hunting club in America, whose riders
are famous, whose hounds are prized for breed
and quality, and whose reputation is growing with
the increased love and interest in the sport.

"where the club eats.

"The club dinners are still served in the old
Rose Tree, although facilities for having the same
are provided in the club house. The building is
two stories, costing about $2,000, and is elabor-
ately finished in yellow pine, the lower story being
a banqueting room and the upstairs two bed-
rooms, for the convenience of those coming out
from the city to the hunts. The banqueting room
is handsomely furnished. At the west end is the
old-fashioned fireplace and crane that Longfellow
sings of, and adjoining are the lockers and cases
of the huntsmen, where their scarlets are kept.
On the walls are trophies of the hunt and pictures
recalling thrilling scenes in the field. Over the
fireplace is a beautifully mounted fox in a glass
case, the gift of Vice-President Saulnier as a
memento of a memorable meet at 'Hurricane Hill,'
the country seat of Mr. Saulnier, when a magnifi-
cent hunt followed and this fox was killed. A
hanging fox, gift of Mr. Fairman Rogers; a grizzly
bear skin, the owner of it slain by Dr. F. F. Row-
land in the Rockies, and a picture, many hundred

FOX HUNTING. 79

years old, of a hunt, the present of Dr. Huide-
koper, together with many fine engravings, com-
plete the interior. The club house, finished in
cottage style, presents a pretty appearance in
juxtaposition with the old inn. Back of the race
track are the summer kennels of the dogs, and here
is provided every facility for keeping in order a
first-class kennel. Among the hounds of the pack
are some of the finest in Aiperica. 'Deal,' one of
the best nose-hounds of the club, never makes a
mistake in the field. 'Trip,' 'Tuck,' 'Minerva,' and
'June' are also familiar to the old hunters of the
Rose Tree for their undeviating perceptions.
The membership of the Rose Tree is now nearly
up to the full limit of lOO and comprises many
distinguished names of the city and vicinity. The
hunting season opens December ist, and from then
on until March ist, three times a week regular hunt
days are provided for the club, and on 'bye-days'
any member can have the hounds by previous ar-
rangement.

"Many gentlemen and a number of ladies are
often found at the meets, and the rare zest and
enjoyment of those who participate in the hunt is
an incentive to on-lookers to engage in the sport.
No one who has seen the full cry over the hills,
the scarlet coats rising and falling on the uplands,
the deep diapason of the hounds, can imagine the

80 FOX HUNTING.

swelling pleasure of the pastime, which nowhere
in the United States has taken such a deep hold
on the people as in the section of it nigh to the
Rose Tree.

"Last evening the club house was brilliantly
lit up and the members were present in force and
had the usual hospitable supper at 'Benny's.'
Arrangements were completed for the fall race
meeting in October and an endeavor will be made
to have it the most distinguished of any yet given.
The interest in the sport, the facilities of the club
house and the entrance of so many Philadelphians
into the club and their relish for the pastime be-
speak a largely increased notoriety for the club.
The races bring out to Media and the Rose Tree,
as the Goodwood cup does abroad, the elite of the
city, many of whom enjoy the beautiful drive down
through the shaded roads in their handsome
equipages.

"No more ennobling exercise than fox hunt-
ing— notwithstanding the frequent false criticism
of it — can be had, and it is a true Anglo-Saxon
pastime. Years of indulgence in it has bred the
spirit in our English cousins that triumphed at the
Alma and Balaklava, held 'the thin red line,' or
fought its way into the citadel at Lucknow. The
red cross of St. George would never have floated
so high and so brave aloft on rampart and mast-

FOX HUNTING. 8l

head had not some of the fearless British blood
that backed it — and which the fox-hunting gentry
here inherit — been tinctured with the strength to
face bodily peril and defy ordinary danger in the
scarlet coats of the men who rode cross country
to the hounds ever since the days of William
Rufus."

CHAPTER XIII.

HUNT BREAKFASTS.

The first hunt breakfast that was given at a
private house was given at the house of J. Howard
Lewis, in Nether Providence, on March 5th, 1877;
but farmers' breakfasts were not unusual at the
Rose Tree club house with the eating served in
"Benny's" dining room, for they originated in the
early days of the organized club and were well
attended.

A description of the breakfast at Mr. Lewis's,
and of the hunt that followed was published in The
Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, of March 22d,
1877, and is as follows :

"how a favorite sport is carried on
in delaware county.

"The extent to which fox hunting is carried
on near Philadelphia may be shown from the fact
that at a hunt that started from the Rose Tree on

82 FOX HUNTING.

Inauguration day (March 5th), there were in the
meet nearly 100 hunters and 133 hounds.

"Wishing to get an insight into the manner of
conducting a hunt, our reporter took a trip to
Delaware County to the 'meet' of the Germantown
and the Rose Tree clubs at the stables of Mr.
Howard Lewis, in Springfield township, Delaware
County, and about three miles east of Media. The
road from the latter place winds through a rolling
and most picturesque country. At times the road
winds along the hillsides, while scores of feet be-
low we can see the low flats and the creek flowmg.
The whole face of the country seems as if it were
formed by a series of upheavals, the rocks out-
cropping here and there on the hillsides, and some
of the latter well covered with thickets and scrub
growth and brush. The place where the 'meet'
was held was one of the most commanding of all
the country, and an observer could see for several
miles about, except at one point where a ridge of
almost equal height was covered from base to sum-
mit with small growth. There were assembled
about thirty-five hunters who intended to take part
in the chase, including two ladies, Mrs. S. W..
from Germantown, and Miss M., of the Rose Tree
Club. Even to one who took no pleasure in the
hunt it was a pleasant sight to see the horses
grouped around, some of them very handsome

FOX HUNTING. 83

animals, whose points as good runners and jumpers
were fully discussed by the several knots of hunt-
ing men and critics who thronged the well-filied
stable, comparing notes between the Rose Tree
Club and their guests. 'Have you seen the
kennel and the fox?' inquires the proprietor.
'Well, come along, and I'll show you some
beauties. There isn't many of them, only two
and a half dozen, as the English would say, for
they can't say twenty-five to save 'em.' Their
kennel was a moderate-sized barn, and as the door
was shoved along to permit a view, there was a
rush of many feet, and such a concert of yells as
the master struck at them and forced them back,
so eager were they for the field. Their eagerness
illustrates the force of the hunter's answer to the
sentimental old lady who was taking him to task
for indulging in the cruel amusement of fox
hunting. He listened patiently, and then said:
*Ah ! madam, ye canna deny that the hunters
like it, I'm sure the horses like it, and I'm
certain the dogs enjoy it, and there's no one
knows that the fox don't like it' There were
twenty-five of these hounds, nearly all of them
thoroughbreds, and some valued at $35 to $50
each. The fox was then inspected. He was kept
in a box, the top of which had slats nailed on it to
prevent his escape. He was caught in German-
6

84 FOX HUNTING.

town, and sent to the Rose Tree a couple of
months ago, and he was thought to be rather
tame, so much so that one of the ladies incautiously
put her fingers inside and he did not offer to
bite it.

"At about half past ten o'clock in the morn-
ing the last straggler had come into the 'meet,'
and a few minutes before eleven o'clock the fox
was taken out in his box and carried to a good
distance and to such a position that none of the
company could tell where it was taken to.

"Their appearance, dressed in their hunting
costume, is exceedingly suggestive. Some wore
short jackets, ordinary trousers tucked into their
riding boots, and carrying riding sticks with a loop
at the end, and all kinds of hats from the silk to
the little jockey skull cap. One old hunter tucked
up the tails of his coat and made a jacket of it,
another came out in a white flannel jacket, and
still another wore a costume somewhat like a
London 'old clo' man, one short overcoat with
another shorter one over it, and white corduroy
trousers were plenty. One of the ladies, Miss M.,
was dressed in a blue water-proof riding habit,
rather long, and the other. Mrs. W., in a short,
well-fitting one of black, and both wore regular
jockey caps.

fox hunting. 85

"the hunt.
" 'Give him a start of fifteen minutes,' says
the master of the hunt. It was an impatient
time, and was spent in talking probabilities,
'horse,' and looking after the straps and saddles.
'Time's up ! mount ! mount !' and in less than a
minute all were in the saddle, the pack of hounds
sHpped and dashing up the road with tails erect
and nose in air, and such a chorus of hoarse
baying and sharp yelps that must have tingled the
ears of the fox if he heard it. In a half minute
almost the whole party had separated, some going
one direction, some another, depending on judg-
ment as to the direction to be taken. 'The wmd's
from the south, and it will be a short hunt,' says
a looker-on, 'for then it's always so.' The hounds
could be heard for a few minutes, and then the
sound was lost behind the hills. The two ladies
rode splendidly and followed the hounds, taking
fences, ditches, and everything with the nerve of
veterans. From the brow of the hill where the
spectators stood the fox was easily seen from the
time it was let out of the trap until the first
quarter of a mile had been run. As the hounds
struck this point there was a temporary hush; then
a deep chorus, and they rushed in a solid body
along the trail. In less than half a minute the
horsemen and the two ladies couM be seen follow-

86 FOX HUNTING.

ing over the rough, rocky ground covered with
underbrush, and some dashing recklessly through
the bushes and across the creek that flowed
through the low bottom land, and then the whole
passed from view over the brow of the hill. What
followed is told by the hunters on the return,
which was about noon, the hunt having lasted
three-quarters of an hour. 'It was a short and
sharp one,' says the Secretary of the Rose Tree
Club, as he came in.

"The first indication was the straying in of a
solitary hunter with horse and self well splashed,
then a limping hound, and then the hounds and
the hunters themselves. The latter were well
splashed from toe to hat, and seemed to pride
themselves upon the amount of real estate in a
semi-Hquid state that each could carry. The ladies
came in bearing the usual evidence of hard and
reckless riding, and soon there was a perfect babble
of the result. The fox had led them a chase of
some six miles around and about, and when run
down by the hounds the first ones in at the death
were Mr. Ed. Worth, Mr. William Leiper, Mr.
George Lewis, Miss M., and, within half a minute,
Mrs. W. As the young lady was in almost the
first, it was decided to give her the brush, or
tail, of the fox, that being the greatest trophy of
the hunt. Each of. the ladies had a foot, and the

FOX HUNTING. 8/

gory head was secured by Mr. Howard Lewis,
and came in hanging from his saddle. It was a
very handsome head, and the face unmutilated,
with the clear, beautiful eyes as bright as if it were
alive. It will be stuffed and adorn the hunter's
box, a room fitted up in the stable, adorned
with hunting pictures, foxes' heads stuffed,
brushes, horns of deer, and similar trophies, and
in which they have the reunion after the hunt to
satisfy their keen appetites and tell the story of
the day and other days. The club consists of
sixty members, thirty of whom are active. All of
them own their own mounts, and many of the
horses have considerable celebrity as hard goers
and fine jumpers. On this occasion there were
about a dozen of the Germantown Club present,
and around the board the assembled hunters sang,
'Auld Lang Syne' and told some remarkable
stories of foxes who had been run hard, but like
the asymptote of a parabola, were continually ap-
proached but never reached. There was one fel-
low who jumped right over a fence on to a hound's
back, gave it a vicious snap, then leaped right be-
tween two large packs of hounds, looked at them
one instant, and was away like a flash of red
lightning, followed by the whole field. That fox
led them everywhere, and at nine o'clock at night,
when the hunt broke up, it was as far of¥ as ever.

88 FOX HUNTING.

At five o'clock the meeting broke up, and the
visitors came riding into town, spattered with
mud as they were. There is no question that, fol-
lowed in the manner it is, fox hunting is a
splendid exercise, and calculated to make splendid
riders. As to its safety, there is very seldom any
accident. There are numbers of ladies who enter
into it with zest, as many as half a dozen riding in
a single hunt. This last hunt is about the last of
the season. In a week or two the ground will be
broken for the growing crops, and the horses will
be patiently at work, dreaming, perhaps, of the
next season.

"Nearly every gentleman residing in German-
town, who possesses a horse or who takes pride in
horses, is in greater or less degree identified, if
not directly, with this association. Prominent
among the usual participants are George Wistar.
Esq., Henry Miller, George Biddle, Clement Bid-
die, Charles Newhall, A. J. Cassatt, Daniel New-
hall, John Welsh, Mr. Carpenter, Joseph M. Rosen-
garten, Wm. Rotch Wistar, and Mr. Johnson.

"There are several of these hunting clubs in
Delaware County. Among the names of the
members of the clubs are some of the most sub-
stantial men of the county, such as Messrs.
Howard Lewis, Samuel Lewis, George W. Hill,
Edward Worth, George Lewis, Samuel Miller,

FOX HUNTING. 89

Mitchell Baker, Wm. Leiper, Fairman Rogers, C.
H. T. Collis, Godfrey R. H. Cooper, C. H. Town-
send, Dr. Bray, H. S. Abbott, A. J. Cassatt, S.
Welsh, Moncure Robinson, and other prominent
men of position."

Another hunt breakfast followed this, later
on, given by Dr. Huidekoper at the "Orchard,"
near Media, and this was generally attended by the
members of the Rose Tree Club. After the break-
fast, a fox not being on hand for a hunt, the guests
indulged in jumping feats over the division fences.
Mitch. Baker had a nice young horse that had not
been hunted much, and, wishing to show him, he
had the Doctor mount him to exhibit his jump-
ing powers. At the first trials at a new four-rail
fence the horse balked, and Howard Lewis, on old
"Dan," gave a lead over it, for "Dan"' never re-
fused. The Baker horse was pushed close after
Dan, and, finding he must jump, he made the
efifort, struck the top rail, and fell heavily on the
other side, sending the Doctor out of the saddle
scooting over the frozen ground. Neither horse
nor rider were hurt, and the Doctor, being plucky,
mounted again and sent the horse full run at the
fence, in a return jump, which he cleared beauti-
fully and established a jumping reputation. How-
ard Lewis says : "That is the way to do it."

90 FOX HUNTING.

Another hunt breakfast was given still later on
at the house of Mr. H. E. Saulnier, Hurricane Hill,
in Aston, and this was attended largely by the
members of the club, as well as by other fox
hunters ; a fox was dropped after the breakfast and
a good hunt had, and the whole affair was a great
success.

CHAPTER XIV.

HUNTS WITH THE ROSE TREE HOUNDS.

The following is a description of a hunt,
written by J. Howard Lewis Sr. and published
in the Delazvarc Couniy American, on March 24th,
1880:

"Editors American : — Thinking that some of
your readers might like to hear an account of one
of the many runs of the Rose Tree pack of fox
hounds, I will try what I can do in the writing
line. This particular meet was on Monday, the
1 6th of February, 1880. The day was all that the
most exacting could wish — bright sun, with the
wind northeast and not too fresh. The night be-
fore had been cold, and had formed a crust on top
of the ground, but the morning was balmy, and, in
fact, everything that an ardent fox hunter could
desire. At nine a. m., when the doors of the
kennel were thrown open, out burst thirteen

FOX HUNTING. 9I

couples of as fine fox hounds as there is in any
kennel in the United States. The company were
mostly in the saddle, and made a very beautiful
appearance. Besides the regular hunt, there were
gentlemen from Philadelphia and Germantown.
There were : Miss M., on 'Black Bess,' Mr. F. on
'Drummer Boy,' Mr. J. on one of Lorrillard's
stock of horses; Dr. B. on 'Cruiser,' a descend-
ant of the famous 'Cruiser,' of Rarey renown;
Dr. H. on 'Pandora,' and several others,
dressed in the most faultless attire of scarlet,
cords, and tops. The party now rode briskly down
toward the valley of the Crum, where they gener-
ally find on Bear Hill. We were, however,
doomed to disappointment; but we pushed on for
about ten miles in a northerly direction, until we
came almost to the Leopard tavern in Chester
County, when we turned westerly, and still not
finding, we turned southerly toward home. And,
right here, let me tell of a little incident which be-
fell one of our party who rode his horse into a smart
stream of water, where it was two or three feet deep
and full of hidden boulders. The horse sHpped on
one of them, and falling, both horse and rider were
drenched. He jumped to his feet and got his
horse, and the party coming to his aid with their
monkeys, he was quickly brought up to par, and
mounted for the chase. He was only fairly in the

92 FOX HUNTING.

saddle when it was 'Tally-ho,' away and away they
all went like parched peas off of a shovel. When
we raised the hill behind George Miller's farm, you
could see Reynard in the distance, with the eager
pack being left hopelessly behind, at least for a
time; and a beautiful sight it was to see the scarlet
coats striving with each other down the valley of
the Crum. A small party with one scarlet coat
among them got into a corner with a high wall
down into the road and a high picket fence on the
right, both of which were pronounced non-takeable,
when here came the old man on his son's steeple-
chaser, 'Ajax.' By the by, the old fellow is gener-
ally behind; but his blood got a little raised at the
sight, and pronouncing it all right, he pounded
down into the road nearly on to his horse's head,
and called to Miss M. to follow, which she did in
beautiful style. They turned to the left into the
field, and the way they made the dirt fly it was a
sight to see. The gentleman in scarlet, in leading
his horse down the wall, allowed him to escape, and
he was forced to wend his way on foot. We will
now follow Miss M. and the old man, who caught
sight of 'Doc,' the Huntsman, tearing down the
Boot road toward the bridge over Crum creek,
and hearing the hovmds, and getting an occasional
sight of them, they nicked it in line style, crossed
the bridge still on the Boot road, and a quarter

FOX HUNTING. 93

of a mile below they turned to the right into the
field toward Castle Rock. But the fox and hounds
kept down the east side of the Crum, and when we
came to the old tumbled-down sawmill we saw the
hounds crossing the creek below the James farm.
We crossed where we were and scuttled up the
hill, just in time to meet the hounds, at fault for
the first time, and meeting an old gentleman on
horseback who said he saw the fox cross a certain
field, we capped them on. They owned the scent
and went away back toward Castle Rock, but on
going down John Davis' hill, back of the barn, they
went out into the Edgmont road at the old school-
house. Here the fox had kept the road for about
a quarter of a mile, but meeting our friend in scar-
let, who had lost his horse, he turned to the left on
the Robert Davis farm to the woods belonging to
Levis & Hill. There he seemed to have been
turned by some woodcutters, and the hounds were
at fault again, only for a few moments, long enough
for every one to get in again ; they were ofif again
at a scrambling rate across the Ridley into an
abominable thicket. Here the old man says he
lost his specs, and, seeing where they fell, con-
cluded to risk getting off for them, as he was a
little short of money, and could not see well with-
out them. But he came very near losing the hunt,
which would have been a great deal worse loss.

94 FOX HUNTING.

So he let in the persuaders, and 'Ajax' brought
him up in about a mile or so to the rest of us.
It was hard to say which was the worst blown,
the old man or the horse. We were now going
out of a by-road on to the road leading from Lima
to Sugartown, above Jackson Baker's. We there
viewed the fox going for Ridley creek. The road
here is straight for about two miles, and we
thundered along at a killing pace, down one hill
and up another, the hounds streaming along only
a field or two to the left of us, but gaining a Httle
when we came to a turn in the road. The fox had
gone a little to the right. A farmer standing there
said he saw the fox go into a clump of trees on
the top of a hill beyond. Mr. R. here let down a
pair of bars, as the horses were pretty well blown
by this time, and in we all went on to a beautiful
grass field. An old woman came out of a house,
and gave us a furious blast, and here the old man
forged to the front. He must have been aided by
the blast from the old lady, as it was the first time
he had been to the front during the chase. And
here let me say that the pace had shut out all but
eight. Miss M. being one of the survivors, riding
as no other lady in the country can; taking stone
walls, fences, ditches, mill races, and all manner of
obstructions, without being unseated in the least.
But to our fox. On the top of the hill in the

FOX HUNTING. 95

clump of trees the hounds were at fault for the
last time. An old gentleman was there and
showed us the way of him. We cheered them
on, and they went as though it was for blood.
We then crossed some farms, and came out
on to a road leading to and close by the inter-
section on the Pennsylvania railroad. We here
turned into some grass fields on the left. By this
time all the frost was out of the ground, and when
we got into the low grounds the horses went blob-
blobbing along, and turning up the sod at a terrible
rate, but we went on, for we found the fox was
getting slower. So, hurrying over the next farm
and down a steep hill in a wood on the head waters
of the Crum, we hear some woodchoppers right
before us shout, 'He is holed! he is holed!' and
there, sure enough, he was under a rock that would
weigh at least a hundred tons. The woodchoppers
said he was very much draggled and generally de-
moralized, being only a few yards before the
hounds. Miss M. having a desire to peep in the
stronghold of 'the old thief of the world,' we all
dismounted and clambered up to his den. After
congratulating Reynard on his narrow escape, we
turned our horses toward home, which we reck-
oned to be about ten or a dozen miles away. The
distance covered by the fox we estimated to be
about fifteen or twenty miles. As we passed down

96 FOX HUNTING.

the hill and over the stream to the public road. I
noticed the old man and Mr. E. staying back.
They got off their horses, and the last time I
looked back I saw one of them raise his little fin-
ger very high, and when they came up to us in
a few minutes they seemed to be very much re-
freshed, so much so that I felt inclined to get off
the next time we crossed the Crum and take a
drink of creek water to see how it would be with
me. On our road home we heard that our friend
who got tumbled in the brook in the morning had
gotten a much worse one during the run; in fact,
he had to swim to get out, but I am happy to say
that there was no more serious accident, and every
one of the party voted it the best run of the
season, and that fox hunting is 'the sport of
kings, the image of war without its guilt, and only
five and twenty per cent, of its danger.'

''An Old Fox Hunter."

HUNT WITH YOUNG HOUNDS.

In a hunt with the Rose Tree hounds our fox
had crossed the track of a fox which two other
packs were running, and the three packs getting
together created confusion and a loss of the scent;
the hounds scattering in different directions. A
large number of horsemen collected together near
Castle Rock, where the loss was made, all eaeer

FOX HUNTING. 97

for a good run. After some delay part of the
hounds struck a trail leading toward Newtown
Square, and most of the hounds of the several
packs, with all the horsemen, excepting a few,
went off with it. Some eight or ten young hounds,
however, were crying on a trail across the West
Chester road, and were heading to the northwest-
ward. Three of the hunters, Pratt Bishop, Dr.
Huidekoper, and the author followed these
hounds. Tliis fox was soon jumped afresh, and
the hounds went off at a lively pace toward the
Paoli Monument; but the hounds, being young,
needed much encouragement, as the fox was a
strong, cunning runner, and gave work that might
have puzzled older hounds, and occasioned many
losses. Our youngsters, however, were keen, and
kept him running. As the afternoon wore on, the
fox and hounds were tiring, and as the fox was
taking to the top rails of fences, the young hounds
quit and laid down to rest. Then the hunters had
to exert themselves to get the hounds to keep up
the running, and this was done by Hfting one of
the best of them to the fence top, holding him
there until he could smell the track, and when he
showed he had caught it by giving tongue, the
rails were thus tried further on, and finally, when
the scent could no longer be found on the fence,
a cast of the fields was made to get the track

98 FOX HUNTING.

where the fox had left the rails. Old, experienced
hounds would have climbed the fences to get the
scent themselves, -as they learn to do. Alany trials
and casts being thus made, the fox was run close
to the monument before he turned for a return
toward Castle Rock. Thus we followed him to
near nightfall, by which time he was well dragged
out, and so were the hounds, following close be-
hind, until crossing a corn field where men were
husking corn, who, not being lovers of the sport,
but objectors to hunting over their farm, they
stoned the hounds from the track, and we were
forced to call ofi; the cool head of Pratt Bishop
preventing a row with the uncivil buskers. Being
some eight miles from the kennel, it was no easy
task to get these young, tired hounds back home,
and some of the more worn out and foot-sore
ones had to be taken up in front of the saddles.
This is only one instance out of many of
similar work done in a hunt in those old hunting
days; but it rarely happened that so much was re-
quired. This, however, will show what encourage-
ment can be given by energetic hunters who
choose to make a study of the sport, and who are
determined to push the fox to hole or death.

FOX HUNTING. 99

HOW THE CUNNING OF A FOX SAVED HIS LIFE.

Can a fox run through a pack of hounds and
get away? He can, as the following mention of
a hunt will show : A fox was dropped in the
meadow below Bishop's mills, now known as the
Sycamore mills, and on the Middletown side of
the creek. An effort was made to drive the fox
down stream, to make him run away from his old
running ground, as he was a quick holer. Before
he had been driven far the hounds either broke
out or were let out purposely before the allotted
time for the start, and came down the meadow,
scattered all over it, until the foremost dogs struck
the scent. The fox, hearing the hounds coming,
turned and ran directly through the scattered pack,
making for a bend in the creek, in full sight of
every hound, and they all ran directly at him.
The fox reached the creek, and with a leap got
footing on a rock in the middle; a second leap
brought him to the opposite bank, and a slip
through the road fences on the Providence side
gave him a lead on the hounds, but they were push-
ing hard after him. A short run brought the fox
to a field where was a flock of sheep which had
huddled together in fright at the cry of the hounds,
and into the middle of this flock the fox put him-
self, running with the sheep to the farther end of
the field, where he slipped through another fence

7

r UNlVERS>rj'"*l

lOO FOX HUNTING.

and off for Powell's rocks, with the hounds close
after, and he barely had time to get under a rock
and save himself. The excitement was great,
every horseman striving to be the foremost, and
hoping the hounds would kill before the rocks
were reached, or at least that the fox could be
turned from them and forced to make a long run.
The following article was published in the
Neiv York Herald of August 7th, 1887:

"the rose tree hunt, near media, in
delaware county.

"A mile and a half from Media, the county
seat of Delaware, a flourishing town where fifty
years ago the only human habitation was the old
Anvil Inn, stands an old-fashioned building from
one window of which projects a swinging sign.
This is the famous Rose Tree Inn, a perfect fac-
simile of the old public houses seen in that part of
England where the iron horse has not yet made
his appearance. On the sign is the faded sem-
blance of a rose tree. Go inside, and across the
little garden you will see a pretty, modern build-
ing in the shape of a long, one-story cottage.
Though quite large, it contains but a single
spacious room or hall, with a wide gallery running
around three sides of it. This is the Rose Tree

FOX HUNTING. lOI

Hunt Club house, where the members meet for
pleasure and business thirteen times a year, wfien-
ever there is a full moon. An elegant supper is
served in the 'best room' of the inn, after which
an hour is devoted to business and the rest of the
evening to conviviality and good fellowship, with
a moonlight drive for all at the close. The mem-
bers are either country gentlemen of old Quaker
blood from Delaware or Chester Counties, or rich
Philadelphians who love hunting, own good horses,
and are not afraid to ride them. Across the road
from the Rose Tree are long ranges of kennels,
and beyond these the race course and grand stand.
Every autumn a Rose Tree Hunt race meeting at-
tracts the beauty and fashion of Philadelphia to
witness farmers' races, flat races for members'
horses, and steeple chases, with club members 'up,'
over two and a half miles of a stifif country studded
with eighteen jumps. These include several stone
walls and some particularly nasty post and rail
fences.

'■'One of the thirteen full moon suppers came
ofif a few days ago, and your correspondent joined
a party from Philadelphia to go out to it. Media
is twenty-two miles from here; a forty-minute trip
by rail. The country is lovely. On both sides of
the line are lovely country houses, owned by
people, many of them whose names have made a

102 FOX HUNTING.

Stir in the world and about whom many queer
stories have been told or written.

"One of the staunchest supporters of the Rose
Tree Hunt is old Mr. Howard Lewis, the wealthy
paper manufacturer, who, despite his seventy years,
charges a stone wall with the youngest of them.
A number of the party called on him before pro-
ceeding to the Rose Tree, where he soon after-
wards joined them. His owning in land is about
a thousand acres of hilly country. His mills are
on his place, and the cottages of his hands within
a stone's throw of 'the great house.' It is a semi-
patriarchal arrangement, with which everyone
seems satisfied. A few years ago Mr. Lewis won
a steeple chase against some of Philadelphia's and
Chester's crack riders. He rides at 150 pounds
— 'ten stun ten,' as the English have it. He drives
back from the Rose Tree on moonlight nights and
tools four horses along the steep, narrow road
through his grounds to the house without a mis-
hap to spoil the record, for he is as good a whip
as he is a rider. Lewis made the paper on which
the Herald was printed thirty years ago.

"A few kind words and a parting glass.
Everybody shakes hands with Mr. Lewis, who
waves us all adieu as our horses breast the hill.
At a turning, half hidden in the foliage, we see
what seems to be the headstone of a grave. One

FOX HUNTING. IO3

of the party gets out to read the inscription.
Here lies buried Mr. Lewis' favorite fox hound.
He is a famous breeder of these animals.

" ' HIC JACET

'SLASHER.

'mortuus calendis februarii,

'mdccclxxv.

*ET EG CANUM VENATICAM MELIOREM
NUNQUAM VIDERE SPERAMUS.'

TROPHIES OF THE CHASE.

"The road in front of the Rose Tree is cov-
ered with vehicles of every description, from the
four-in-hand of a dashing young lover of sport
from Bryn Mawr, Mr. Mather, who brings a party
of friends, to the modest top buggy that shelters
my friend and myself. Everybody gathers in the
club room, and members produce keys that open
mysterious lockers, from which that is taken which
will enable old and young to struggle with the
heat.

"A thin old gentleman with a long gray beard
comes in. Everybody rises to greet him. Eighty
years have passed over his head without destroy-
ing his liking for sport, a passion than which there
are few stronger in the human breast, since its

104 FOX HUNTING.

hidden roots go back to the time when man had
to hunt or starve.

"While the younger members gather around
this Nestor of the chase, I give a glance at the
room. Stuffed foxes, nearly every one of whom
was the hero of a great run, grin at you from little
wooden shelves. In the centre of the room, on
the floor, is one of the largest buffalo robes ever
skinned from the animal. Antlers of buck and
moose, stuffed birds, and a whole gallery of sport-
ing pictures complete the outfit. The fireplace is
an old-fashioned one, as large as a small room, and
furnished with a crane that sets one's mouth
watering with thinking of the whiskey punches it
has supplied hot water for.

"One of the stuffed foxes, whose white teeth
gleam in the twilight, led the members a chase of
seventy miles before he parted with his skin. He
was run to earth way down in the State of Dela-
ware after six hours' galloping^. Out of a fi.eld of
sixty only four were 'in at the death.'

"time and wind up.

"Supper is announced and about forty persons
walk over into the inn's big dining room. Sam
Lewis, brother of the veteran Howard; Richard
Peters, of Media, a cousin of the beautiful Mrs.
Craig Wadsworth, who died universally regretted.

FOX HUNTING. IO5

ill Washington, some years ago; George Hill,
Samuel Miller, William Bullock, George Darling-
ton, all well-known names of men who have
toasted each other from boyhood; Dr. Huidekoper,
of Philadelphia, the ex-postmaster's brother; Sher-
iff Rowland, of Media, and his nephew, the doctor.
It is 'Willie,' 'Harry,' 'Jack,' 'Tom.' You don't
hear a single surname.

"After the good, pure, wholesome country
food has been done justice to, cigars are lighted,
and a brief hour is given to discussing arrange-
ments for the autumn meeting. Then merriment
holds undisputed sway, and song — from a young
man with a sweet tenor voice — is making the
rafters ring to : —

" 'My pretty little cruiskeen lawn-lawn lawn.
My pretty little cruiskeen lawn.'

"And the echo of the jolly old song floats
after us as we drive home in the moonlight at
break-neck speed to catch the last train."

The members of the club recollect with
pleasure the delightful manner in which Charlton
Yarnall, who was a member in 1891, sang his old
hunting songs, "The Fox Jumped over the Garden
Wall," and "A-hunting We Will Go," with his
peculiarly rich, clear, and expressive voice; and

I06 FOX HUNTING.

how Cure Robinson sang his hunting song, "Tally
ho, Hark, Away !" with all present joining in the
chorus; and Howard Lewis Sr. sang his songs,
"Cruiskeen Lawn," and "Judy Callighan"; and
Samuel D. Riddle his songs, "Dad's Dinner Pail,"
"Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door,"
and others. The singing followed the supper, and
before the leaving of the table. Then occasionally
guests present enliven us with songs, anecdotes,
music and witty speeches, and none can be more
ready with such a speech than our fellow member,
William B. Bullock.

CHAPTER XV.

■ VISITING OF OTHER HUNTS.

The club had many energetic members be-
tween 1875 and 1890, and they kept themselves in
close touch with the members of other hunt clubs.
Winter after winter they visited the West Chester,
Pennsylvania, Club, taking their hounds with
them, for several continuous days' hunting in
Chester County. They also in like manner
visited Chadd's Ford on the Brandywine, and
George Miller's in Willistown, and at Oxford,
both also in Chester County. At the latter place
they hunted with Billy Armstrong. These were

FOX HUNTING. LOJ

jovial occasions, and many daring and reckless
feats in horsemanship were exhibited, which are
still talked over among the members of the club
at their reunions.

Several of the members of the Elk Ridge Fox
Hunting Club, of Maryland, near Baltimore,
among them being William Frick, Fred Schriver,
Edw. Murray, and a Mr. Jackson, visited the Rose
Tree Club for a week of hunting in 1879, bringing
their well-bred horses with them. They unques-
tionably were good and bold riders, and the spot
is still pointed out where one of them rode his
horse, with a broken saddle girth, in a hunt, up a
sharp, steep hill and over a good, stiff fence at the
top, and that he kept his seat firmly throughout
was a wonder.

The Rose Tree men made a return visit the
following winter to the Elk Ridge Qub, taking
their own horses, and among them were Moncure
Robinson Jr., Dr. Rush S. Huidekoper, George
M. Lewis, W. H. Corlies, and C. H. Townsend,
and a jolly time they had of it. It was on this trip
that '"Pandora" and Robinson's horse had a race
on the turnpike one moonlight night, and, coming
unexpectedly to a toll gate, the riders found the
gate closed by a bar across the roadway. It was
too late to check the horses, and "Pandora" rose
for the leaD too close to the bar, which she struck

I08 FOX HUNTING.

heavily and rolled over the other side, spilling her
rider headforemost, but without serious damage to
either. Not so, however, with Mr. Robinson's
horse, for he swerved, and, striking himself and
rider against the bar post, the horse was crippled
and had to be killed, and the rider was lamed for
Hfe.

MEMBERSHIP IN 1893.

In 1893 the club roll shows the following
membership :

Active members: George W. Hill, Henry
E, Saulnier, J. Howard Lewis, Fairman Rogers,
George M. Lewis, William H. Codies, A. J. Cas-
satt, Frank Thomson, William H. Miller, George
E. Darlington, Edward Worth, James L. Fisher,
Humphrey M. Ash, James D. Rhoads, J. Watts
Mercur, J. Howard Lewis Jr., Herbert Cox, Wil-
liam Wayne Jr., William M. McCollum, Charles
E. Mather, Jared Darlington, Walter M. Sharpies,
Walter R. Furness, Carroll Smyth, Henry R. Hat-
field, Walter S. Massey, William G. Huey, Joseph
Lapsley Wilson, Samuel D. Riddle, Lincoln God-
frey, John Wyeth, A. H. Tyson, John T. Dohan,
Richard Peters Jr., William B. Bullock, Joseph
M. Dohan, Henry D. Justi, William Little, Dr.
Charles J. Essig, Dr. Charles A. Dohan, Alfred S.
Gillett, Thomas J. Clayton, John B. Robinson,

FOX HUNTING. IO9

Alfred Gratz, Charles W. McGlensey, Simon Del-
bert Jr., William A. Stotesbury, Leander W.
Riddle, Henry G. Sinnott, Isaac M. Longhead,
Geo. F. Martin, Ivan Fox, William A. Lewis, Wil-
liam M. Kerr, Alexander Y. Davison, John H.
Hawkins, Fred T. Chandler, C. Fallon Lewis,
Harry L. Hippie, Charles B. Jobson.

The honorary membership is as follows :
JefTerson Shaner, Jesse J. Hickman, Mark Pennell,
J. Morgan Baker, Samuel Miller, John J. Rowland,
Alexander Pope Jr., Boston, Mass.; William I.
Leiper, Alexander Brown, Elk Ridge Hunt, M. F.
H,, Baltimore, Md.; Frank Seabury, Myopia Hunt,
M. F. H., Brookline, Mass.; F. Gray Griswold,
Rockaway Hunting Club, M. F. H., Far Rocka-
way, New York; A. Baumgarten, Montreal Hunt,
M. F. H., Canada; Moncure Robinson Jr., George
B. Adams, Dr. Rush S. Huidekoper, Samuel C.
Lewis, Charles H. Townsend.

And the of^cers of the club were : President,
Henry E. Saulnier; Vice-Presidents, J. Howard
Lewis and George M. Lewis; Secretary, William
H. Corlies; Treasurer, Jared Darlington; Master
of Hounds, George W. Hill; Directors, George E.
Darlington, Humphrey M. Ash, William Little,
and Simon Delbert Jr.

A number of the members on the roll of 1882
were dead at this time and others had dropped

no FOX HUNTING.

from membership, and still others were placed
on the honorary list. The contribution member-
ship had ceased and was a thing of the past.

CHAPTER XVI.

GEORGE W. HILL, M. F. H.

George W. Hill continued in the office of
Master of Hounds up to the time of his death on
March 30th, 1900, having faithfully performed the
duties of that position for twenty-six years. He
had a great fondness for horses and dogs, and was
an ardent fox hunter, and maintained for the
club one of the best packs of American hounds in
the county or State, and Delaware County could
always boast of having some of the best packs of
American hounds in the country. Being a dealer
in horses, he furnished to lovers of the chase many
excellent cross-country horses.

Mr. Hill was born in the old borough of
Chester in 1825, and was seventy-five years of age
at the time of his death. At an early age he went
with his parents to reside at Rockdale, now Glen
Riddle, and lived there a number of years, his
father conducting mills and stores, recently owned
by Samuel Riddle. While there, at the age of
about sixteen years, he received his early train-

FOX HUNTING. Ill

ing in fox hunting under the skilled tuition of that
now venerable and highly respected old fox hunter,
Mr. Mark Pennell, who also gave his first lessons
to John Mahoney. Some years later Mr. Hill
went to live on a farm in Middletown township,
and there continued his hunting experience up
to the time he came to Media to live. He
hunted actively with the Rose Tree Club hounds
up to about two years before his death, when a fall
of his horse in the hunting field disabled him; but
he afterwards resumed riding in the winter of 1898-
99, and still rode some little the winter before his
death, although much shattered in health, and
still kept up an active interest in the club affairs.
His reputation as a Master of Hounds of one of
the oldest and best hunting clubs in the country
was widely known, and he was highly esteemed
and respected by all who knew him.

EXPERIMENT WITH ENGLISH HOUNDS.

In the early days of the organized club, after
J. Edward Farnum became a member, he im-
ported from England some of the best English fox
hounds that could be obtained, and put them into
the Rose Tree pack, being of opinion, after seeing
the running of English hounds in their own
country, that our American hounds could be im-
proved by this cross strain of blood. But a few

112 FOX HUNTING.

seasons of trial satisfied Mr. Farnum and the mem-
bers of the dub that the Enghsh hound could not
compete with the American in our hunting fields,
either in nose, voice, or endurance, and the ex-
periment was not a success.

The Radnor Club, of this county, after their
organization, experimented with a pack of English
hounds for several years, but, for some reason, are
now doing their hunting with American hounds
only.

LADY RIDERS.

Ladies rode with the Rose Tree Club hounds
as far back as 1878, and for several years after, and
they were as daring lady riders as the American
hunting field has ever had. Many stories are told
by the old hunters how fences and walls, that v/ere
refused by the less bold gentlemen riders, were
fearlessly taken in a flying leap by these ladies.

WELLS ROGERS, HUNTSMAN,

Wells Rogers, usually called "Doc" Rogers,
was appointed Huntsman of the pack in Novem-
ber, 1878, and has filled the position to the present
time, having full charge of the feeding and care of
the hounds in the kennel, and of the hunting of
them in the field; and so long has he thus served,
as well as in taking charge of the club house, that
he seems to be a part and parcel of the club.

FOX HUNTING. II3

HOUNDS AND KENNELS.

After Mr. Hill became President and took
charge of the pack, the club purchased its hounds
largely from Maryland and Virginia through him;
their number being increased at one time up to
about fifty. They were kept in the kennels winter
and summer, the club having then a summer ken-
nel on the road to Paxson's Hollow, on the Rogers
property, called "Saratoga," which was well shaded
and had a running stream of water through it.
This was given up after several years' trial by
reason of its distance from the club house, and the
difficulty in giving it proper superintendence; and
the pack, having been reduced to twenty-five or
thirty hounds, were then kept constantly in the
old kennel near the club house.

OFFICERS OF THE CLUB.

J. Howard Lewis, who is now in his eighty-
sixth year of age, was elected Vice-President, and
George M. Lewis, Second Vice-President, in Oc-
tober, 1880, and, by re-elections, both have served
in the same official positions to this time.

Henry E. Saulnier was elected President of
the club in October, 1884, and has continued in
that position to the present time, and he is now in
his ninety-first year of age.

The genial disposition of Mr. Saulnier, with

114 FOX HUNTING.

his natural inborn gentle and manly character, and
his polite and courteous manner in his intercourse
with others, and all his social and excellent char-
acteristics, has greatly endeared him to the mem-
bers of the club, and made him highly popular
with them, winning their love and respect. The
activity and interest he has always displayed in the
affairs of the club, and his regular attendance at
its business meetings and social gatherings, makes
one forget his four score and ten years, and to still
class him among its active members. For many
years, and even after he arrived at an age that
might have been considered old in others, he fol-
lowed the hounds in the hunting field with an en-
thusiasm that many a younger man might have
been proud to emulate. His presence at the
gatherings of the club is always greeted with the
greatest enthusiasm and pleasure.

This may also be well said of J. Howard Lewis,
who, although he has passed his four score years,
still backs a horse with a grit and fine display of
superior horsemanship that creates for him an en-
thusiastic pride in the hearts of his fellow-mem-
bers. His seat at the table at the club suppers,
from the first of these monthly entertainments, has
invariably been in front of the dish of roast pig,
for he is an expert carver of this luscious viand,
and cannot be excelled. The eyes of all the table

FOX HUNTING. II5

are fixed upon him when he begins his work, to
watch the dexterous cut in the severing of the
head, and the long cut along the backbone from
neck to tail in laying the pig open for carving into
plate pieces. No one knows better than he where
to find the choice parts and how to adorn it with
a slice of well-browned, crisp skin, and with
savory filling.

George W. Hill was elected Master of Hounds
in October, 1884, being the first elected Master of
the incorporated club.

In 1887, the club, feeling the necessity for an
active Board of Directors, elected as Directors in
October of that year, George E. DarHngton, H.
M. Ash, Richard Peters Jr., and H. R. Hatfield,
the President, Secretary, and Treasurer being
ex-officio members of the Board. Mr. Darlington
is still a Director, and Mr. Ash served to about
the date of his death in 1900. William Little and
Simon Delbert Jr. took the places of Mr. Peters
and Mr. Hatfield on the Board; the Board now
consists of Mr. Little, Mr. Darlington, Walter T.
Roach, and Emanuel Hey.

The Board, after its election in 1887, imme-
diately organized by the appointment of a Chair-
man and Secretary, held regular monthly meet-
ings, kept minutes of its proceedings; took full
charge of the property and finances of the club,

Il6 FOX HUNTING.

and proceeded to get it into sound and regular
business running shape, which the Board soon suc-
ceeded in doing, and in which condition it has con-
tinued to the present time.

In October, 1888, Jared Dadington was
elected Treasurer, and William H. Corhes was
re-elected Secretary of the Club, and they have re-
tained these positions to this time.

Of recent years the club employs, during the
hunting season, an Assistant Huntsman and a
Whipper-in, to help in the hunting of the hounds
in the field, as well as in the care of them, and
these positions are well filled by Samuel McClure
and Charley Miles.

CHAPTER XVn.

FEATURES OF THE CLUB.

The club members have always kept up their
friendly relationship with the farmers of the
county, by avoiding injury to grain or sod fields,
and every efifort is made to prevent the riding over
such fields in soft weather. Any damages done
to fowls, sheep, or other domestic animals by the
hounds of the pack, or to fences and enclosures
by the hunters, are promptly paid for by the club.

The prejudice of the old members of the club

FOX HUNTING. llj

against any unfair treatment of the fox, by bag
hunting, digging out when he had been run to
earth, and the destroying of their harbors, has
been instilled into the present membership, and
such unsportsmanlike practices are not indulged in
or countenanced by this club.

The serious opposition to bag hunting is that
it encourages the digging out of foxes; and if the
fox is not killed in the bag run, he is so scared by
his capture and confinement, that he quits the part
of the country he has been living in, and where
he has given sport to hunters. This is the reason
fox hunters seldom dig out foxes on their own
grounds or runs; and those who do dig them out,
as a rule, do the digging on the grounds of other
hunters, and this has always been considered a
mean act and not honorable. Then another ob-
jection is, that a captured fox which has been con-
fined for a week, ten days, two weeks, or more, as
is generally the case, in a damp cellar or in a
close room on a board floor, is not in fair run-
ning condition to be thrown down before a pack
of hounds for a run; and the fifteen, or twenty, or
more minutes given him as a start is of little ad-
vantage to the fox, merely giving him time to
shake himself together or to fill himself with
water at a running stream, a disadvantage to him,
nnd if in a strange country he certainly cannot de-

Il8 FOX HUNTING.

termine how or where to run. But the fact is, in
most instances, the fox will run off into cover,
and there sit down or waste his time until the re-
leased hounds get well on him. In almost every
case the run is short; if the fox knows the country-
he may hole and escape, if he does not he is surely
killed.

Then this digging out of foxes induces bag
hunting from country taverns, for the benefit of
the landlords in the sale of liquors to the indis-
criminate crowds that assemble on such occasions;
for, rest assured, the hunt has been well advertised
in the days the fox is in captivity. In times past
where the fox was speedily killed, it was openly
charged that he had been crippled before being
turned out, in order that the run would be short,
to assure the return of the crowd to the tavern for
the further benefit of the landlord. In former
years these tavern fox hunts were much more fre-
quent than now, but there are still many country
taverns, and if the digging out of foxes is encour-
aged, there is no reason why the frequency of
tavern hunts should not be revived. These hunts
were always a source of annoyance to farmers of
the neighborhood, for, in the irresponsible mass
participating, there were many riders who had no
regard for the rights of the land owners, and fences,
lawns, and grain fields were injured recklessly.

FOX HUNTING. IIQ

A few men who keep hounds boast of the
number of foxes they have dug out in a season;
some ranging up to large numbers; and they, no
doubt, furnish bag foxes to other hunts where the
preservation of foxes is not properly considered
by the members.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PRESENT MEMBERSHIP.

The following is the present list of active
members : Henry E. Saulnier, J. Howard Lewis,
George M. Lewis, William H. Corlies, A, J. Cas-
satt, William H. Miller, George E. DarHngton,
James L. Fisher, Carroll Smyth, William Wayne
Jr., Charles E. Mather, Jared Darlington, Walter
k. Sharpies, Henry R. Hatfield, Walter S. Mas-
sey, William B. Bullock, Jos. Lapsley Wilson,
William G. Huey, Lincoln Godfrey, J. Howard
Lewis Jr., John Wyeth, Samuel D. Riddle, John
T. Dohan, Joseph M. Dohan, Henry D. Justi,
William Little, Dr. Charles A. Dohan, Simon
Delbert Jr., William A. Stotesbury, Leander W.
Riddle, Ivan Fox, William M. Kerr, John H.
Hawkins, Frederick T. Chandler, Henry L.
Hippie, William W. Whitney, Thomas R. Tunis,
Edwin Corlies, Washington W. James, William S.
Bunting, Alfred L. Hawkins, Harrison K. Caner,

I20 FOX HUNTING.

E. Shirley Borden, Emanuel Hey, Edward B.
Chase, Walter T. Roach, Samuel A. Rohrer,
Francis G. Taylor, J. Herbert Ogden, William L.
Barker, Harry J. Doyle, John C. Grady, Walter
D. Griscom, E. Sanford Hatch, William S. P.
Shields, WilHam H. Sayen, W. F. Presgrave, E.
A. McFarland, G. W. Rudolph, John F. Huneker,
William E. Carter, William Conway, G. D. Gideon,
General Edward Morrell, Dr. Edward Martin,
Frank W. Baker, J. M. Bullock, W. B. Bratton,
Irwin N. Megargee, Dr. Theodore L, Adams, Dr.
Charles H. Schoff, F. H. Fleer, H. Percival Glen-
dinning, Edward Crozer, George R. Fox, Frank
T. Downing^ C. H. Bean, Victor J. Petry, Ernest
R. Yarnall, Dr. J. N. Risley, General George R.
Snowden.

The honorary membership list has not been
increased from the one given for 1893.

From the time of the election of the Board of
Directors before alluded to and organized by the
election of a Chairman and Secretary and the ap-
pointment of a House Committee the Board has
been holding its regular meetings, minutes of
which have been fully kept. The club has also
been holding monthly business meetings very
regularly, and the organization is thoroughly com-
plete.

Mr. Simon Delbert was a very active member

FOX HUNTING. 121

of the House Committee, and the club house con-
tEiins many reminders of his good taste and judg-
ment in its furnishing and arrangement of its con-
tents. He has also bred at his country home
some very good hounds for the kennel.

THE ROSE TREE CLUB HOUNDS.

The kennels contain thirty-two long-eared
American hounds for active hunting on the three
regular days of each week; and ten young hounds
of the club's own raising, now in training. The
present disposition of the club is to again raise its
own puppies by breeding from good American
stock. The names of the older hounds are as
follows: "Jerry," "Charlie," "Roamer," "Tom,'
"Ringwood," "Reynard," "Trim," "Loafer,'
"Racket," "Black Lead," "Rattler," "Rowdy,'
"Sailor," "Nero," "Buck," "Hunter," "Fashion,'
"Sweetheart," "Blossom," "Betty," "Screamer,'
"Clipper," "Slipper," "Rose," "Quinine," "Queen,'
"Milo," "Jack," "Delaware," "Jeff," "Traveler,'
and "Kie"; and the young hounds are named
"Bert," "Duke," "Silver," "Princess," "Colonel,'
"General," "Milo," "Bonnie," "Hey," and "Man.'

A true American fox hound, when once he
strikes the scent of a fox track, will never leave
it for the track of any other animal; and when
running a fox on a hot scent cannot be called

122 FOX HUNTING.

from and it is difficult to beat him from it. Every
old hound runs with his own ambition to kill, and
if the pack by chance gets lost from him, will run
as hard alone as he will in company.

Hounds run best with their own pack, and
when brought in contact with other packs in the
field, the younger hounds become excited, un-
steady, and wild in their work.

One of the members of the club, Mr. Ed-
ward B. Chase, is keeping hounds for his own
amusement at his home in Upper Darby town-
ship; and we understand he is undertaking the
selecting of hunting packs of fifteen American
fox hounds for each pack, by breeding, purchase,
and training, so the hounds shall bunch together
in hunting and running. We have no doubt,
with his energy, determination, experience, and
skill, that he will succeed, and he should be en-
couraged. The advantage will be found to be
great, for the lack of attention to the selecting of
hounds spoils many a large pack; as a few bad
hounds in a pack will ruin young hounds and
make them run off on a dog or any other animal
track they strike, as quickly as on a fox track, and
will also teach them to worry sheep, hogs, and
fowls. They are also sure to make a straggling
pack in the field, from indisposition to run in with
the good hounds that follow the fox closely.

FOX HUNTING. I23

There should be harmony in the pack, and it
should be composed of well-bred hounds of equal
energy, steadiness, endurance, and flieetness of
foot. A pack of ten or fifteen hounds of this
character will give better results and satisfaction
than a pack of twenty-five or forty hounds not well
selected. They may require harder riding to keep
in with, but the rider is not confused by the cry
of straggling hounds.

LOCATION OF KENNELS.

The kennels are still on the lot on the west
side of the Providence road from the club house,
a part of the hotel property. The lot, besides
being shaded by a fine chestnut grove, commands
a beautiful and extensive view of the valley of the
Crum. The lot, as now enclosed with its high
board fence and race track, was originally fitted
up for the Delaware County Agricultural Society
exhibitions, in about 1865 (the Delaware County
Institute of Science building, erected in 1837, and
so used here until 1867. being located near it), and
the annual autumn exhibitions of the society were
held on this lot, using the Institute building for
the exhibitions of contributions of handiwork by
ladies, and of fruit, flowers, vegetables, seeds, etc.
The track was used for exhibitions of trotting
contests, with some running races. The outbreak

124 FOX HUNTING.

of the war, in 1861, ended the existence of this
society for several years, and no further such ex-
hibitions were held there. At other times the track
was used for speeding and training horses and for
private races, until the Rose Tree Hunt Club be-
gan to hold their annual fall race meetings there.
At this time members of the club, by individual
subscriptions, erected the grand stand, as now lo-
cated, and the judges' stand; the only change that
has been made was the removal of the roof or
covering from the grand stand, which was done in
the fall of 1900, for improvement, by a race com-
mittee; and the judges' stand was rebuilt.

The present kennels were erected on this lot
within a few years after George W. Hill became
President and acting Master of the Club — and
these being the first kennels erected in this part of
the country, they were erected more particularly
for winter packing; the summer comfort of the
hounds was not considered. The tight board
fence enclosed the yard as now; and the slaughter
house was erected adjoining the kennels, to be
handy; and thus it continued until Mr, Hill's
death, when the Board of Directors decided to
also enclose a well-shaded space in the rear of the
kennel, with a wire fence, to give fresh air, shade,
exercise, and comfort to the pack in hot weather;
and this was done through the Board's kennel

5

-y 7.

(J P

FOX HUNTING. I25

committee; the present wire enclosure being the
resuh, and has proven most advantageous during
the last summer. Colonel Morrell heartily con-
curred in this improvement upon his taking his
position as Master of Hounds, and at his instance
a further necessary improvement was made by the
addition of a puppy kennel and yard, which has
been long needed.

CHAPTER XIX.

DIFFICULTIES IN HUNTING FIELD.

Anyone reading the pubHshed accounts of
fox hunts in this part of the country can form no
idea of the pleasure in the sport or the difficulties
attending it. A thorough familiarity with farm
lands or wooded sections along the public roads
is of very little good to you in a ride across
country, where every feature of the landscape is
so entirely changed that one appears to be in a
strange land, and you are soon likely to be lost
from hounds and companions and bewildered as to
locations. But, the question is asked by the un-
initiated, why cannot the hunter follow with his
horse directly after the hounds and not get lost?
He might, if the fox would keep to the open
country, and you had a horse that could take every
division fence, with endurance enough to last with
the hounds, up hill and down, and with fleetness

126 FOX HUNTING.

enough to stay with them; and then you had suffi-
cient grit in yourself to stick to it. But quite all
this no fox hunter has ever been known to have
in a long, fast, hard run, kept up for hours; and
he must occasionally cut to keep in the hunt.
Then, another difficulty, the fox will not keep to
the open country, and you are soon confronted
with a tract of woodland filled with a thick growth
of underbrush, to ride through which faster than
a walk, — if you are not torn from the saddle, or do
not have your eyes, face, hands, and clothes torn,
and your hat or cap gone, you are lucky. Still
more, in approaching this thicket you find a mass
of green briars through which it is impossible to
force your horse to get to the fence separating
you from the wood; and as if this were not enough,
over the fence gracefully dangles innumerable
grape vines with hangman nooses ready to slip
over your neck and suspend you from the saddle.
If you have hunted the country before and know
a wood road through this labyrinth, you are likely
to ride to it; and if you do not know such a way
you will think discretion the better part of valor
and ride around the wood tract, seeking a better
riding course. In the meantime the fox and
hounds have gone through this barrier, in your
way, and you are fortunate if they have not turned
in an opposite direction from the one you take to

FOX HUNTING. 12"/

get in with them. Then another Httle trouble may
confront you in this county, with its five large
streams of water running through it, and its many
mill powers. The fox, hard driven, has taken to
a mill dam, or to the broad, deep creek, swimming
through the water or crossing on ice, not strong
enough to bear your horse; so, rather than risk
losing your valuable animal, and perhaps your own
life, you ride for a bridgeway or ford; and when
you have safely crossed, — where are your fox and
hounds? You must ride hard, listen, and find out
by the best judgment you can exercise. Wind
splitting steep hills, broken rocky sections of
ground, marshy meadows, a slippery hillside, or a
barbed wire stretched on the top of a line fence,
and such trifling obstacles, are also likely to be
in your path. Still, it is a glorious sport, and
these difficulties only add zest and excitement to
it, and make a man of the rider.

The use of huntsmen, assistant huntsmen,
and whippers-in undoubtedly creates a reliance on
these employes, on the part of the hunters, to keep
them in touch with the hounds. But it sometimes
happens that even these trained hunters get
knocked out in our hilly country, and any fox
hunter who will be frank with you will admit that
he has been knocked out in his hunts oftener than
is pleasant to own up to.

128 FOX HUNTING.

CHAPTER XX.

THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE CLUB HOUNDS NOW,

Among the active and good riders who now
follow the Rose Tree hounds are the Master of
Hounds, Colonel Edward Morrell; Carroll Smyth,
Harrison K. Caner, Henry R. Hatfield, J. Howard
Lewis Jr., Simon Delbert Jr., William A. Stotes-
bury, Ivan Fox, William M. Kerr, John H.
Hawkins, Alfred L. Hawkins, E. Shirley Borden,
Emanuel Hey, Edward B. Chase, Walter T. Roach,
H. Percival Glendinning, Edward Crozer, George
R. Fox, Irwin N. Megargee, Victor J. Petry,
Ernest R. Yarnall, Dr. Charles H. Schofif, Dr. J.
N. Risley, and others.

There are several lady riders who sometimes
follow the hounds, and among these are Mrs. M.
and Mrs. R., both excellent and fearless riders
who take the fences with the best of them.

OTHER CLUBS AND HUNTS IN THE COUNTY.

There are two other organized hunting clubs
in Delaware County, the Radnor and the Lima;
and several other hunts, the Elwood Powell, of
Springfield township; the Pinkerton, of Edgmont
township; the Hickman, on the edge of Chester
County; the Speakman, of Chadd's Ford; and the

FOX HUNTING. I2g

Stewart, of Chester city, each having from fifteen
to twenty hounds.

These clubs and hunts all use American
hounds.

Charles E. Mather, M. F. H., of the Radnor
Club, maintains a pack of English hounds at his
farm near the Brandywine, in Chester County.

POPULARITY OF THE ROSE TREE FOX
HUNTING CLUB.

Many of its members do not ride with the
hounds, but get their pleasures from the club's
annual races and its monthly meetings and
suppers.

The long-continued, popular, and successful
existence of this club is largely due to the good
fellowship in it, and to the social disposition of the
members, and their kindly treatment of each other,
as well as to the liberality and pleasure exhibited in
entertaining, and in the cordial manner in which
the club receives strangers and guests, freeing
them of restraint by the hearty welcome given.
And to these may be added the indisposition of
members to depart from old traditions or to per-
mit any innovations or new rules for the govern-
ment of the club to creep in that would mar the
harmony existing among its members. Absence

130 FOX HUNTING.

of conventionality, and a firm adherence to the
well established characteristics of the club, and to
the old rural form of entertainment, both in the
dining-room and in the club house, will keep the
membership full and preserve the popularity of
the club for years to come.

f^^2^p^^M^UT^^iiM^Xi

h^

m^

7r.^::^<f

K CO UC^^.^

^PMm.mr^^:';A\v~a^7nip

^■\SiV5'^ ^'.\^^^\^^.^,^'«i'=^.