BAILY'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF SPORTS AND PASTIMES. JOHN COUPLAND, ESQ. THE subject of our present sketch, Mr. John Coupland-to whose life-like portrait we desire to call especial attention, as one of the happiest efforts of our artist-is of a Cheshire family, and, born in 1834, spent some seven or eight years of his early youth in India, where his sporting tastes having been developed in his boyhood, when he rode in steeplechase matches over Aintree, he soon established at Bombay a pack of hounds, which, in lack of foxes, hunted jackals and anything else they could find. On his return to England he regularly hunted in Cheshire with the Cheshire hounds, as well as of those of Sir Watkin Wynn; and during this time it was that Mr. Coupland imbibed his taste for the science of hunting, and picked up that knowledge, which has since stood him in such good stead, from the precepts and practices of Walker, Sir Watkin's well-known huntsman, than whom a better master could not have been found. In 1869, on the retirement of Mr. Musters, he took the Quorn, hunting that gentleman's hounds for one season, and then purchasing the Craven pack from Mr. George Willes, who had just given them up. Mr. Willes, during his mastership, had taken great pains with their breeding, and Mr. Coupland was able to bring a pack into Leicestershire showing some of the best blood in the country. He has done right well with them—not so well this season as last, for the scent has not been on the whole so good, and foxes have taken to lying out-but he has hunted the country thoroughly, the bad parts as well as the good, not favouring a popular meet or shirking a bad one, riding boldly to hounds, always in the first flight, sparing no expense where horseflesh is concerned, and his servants are mounted as himself. One commendable virtue is punctuality-not always, we fancy, practised by some past masters-and this Mr. Coupland possesses in a remarkable degree. There may be ten minutes' law, but beyond that there is no waiting, and the hounds are put into .covert be late Meltonians there or not. In the management of his fieldand a Quorn field was a difficulty even in the good old days-Mr. Coupland exhibits great tact and temper, and with but one object in view-to be a master not in name alone, but in reality; understanding the duties of the post as well as its rights, he is content to work for that sole aim, the promotion of sport. Mr. Coupland is a very fine horseman, and a famous judge, popular with all classes, and a trump card of the well-known John Darby, of Rugby, of whom he is a capital customer. The Master of the Quorn is a well-known whip, a member of the Coaching Club, and his drag a familiar one in the Park in the season. The four handsome chesnuts comprising Lord Carington's team, so well known and so much admired at meets of the C. C., were bought by his Lordship from Mr. Coupland. In the steeplechase world Mr. Coupland's name is well known. He has ridden at Hoylake, and had one or two good cross-country horses, among them Stanton, an old flat performer, Bannockburn, who beat Brick and Walterstown at Birmingham, Roundtext, a good one among hunters, and others. Mr. Coupland married, five years since, Mrs. C. F. Webster, a daughter of Sir Henry Calder, and granddaughter of the first Earl of Limerick. Mrs. Coupland does not hunt, but shares her husband's skill and fondness for driving. COUNTRY QUARTERS. THE SINNINGTON, SIR HARCOURT JOHNSTONE'S, AND THE ANOTHER pack of which I must tell you,' continued our friend, is the Sinnington, which claims to be, and I believe with reason, the oldest in England. Here we have still a good example of the way in which our forefathers conducted sport when there was no local magnate to bear the brunt of the expense in providing it for them, as the hounds are trencher fed, or, in other words, instead of a subscription towards the expenses each yeoman and farmer keeps a hound or two, as the case may be. The huntsman lives at Kirby Moorside, which, I suppose, we must designate as the head-quarters of the "Sinnington Hoont," where there is a small kennel, and, the day before hunting, goes 'round and collects his pack. Of course no feeding is wanted that evening, and he only has to take them to the meet the next day, find his fox, and kill him. The sport over, he troubles no further, but just rides home again; and one of the most amusing sights I ever witnessed is to see the independent manner in which his pack take their different routes. They by no chance go beyond the right turn of the road, but will stop in twos, threes, or singly (as the case may be), sit up on their haunches a few minutes, and watch him, as if to make sure that he does not intend to draw again, and, when satisfied on this point, put their sterns over their backs and trot leisurely off. By the time he reaches Kirby Moorside, he is entirely deserted, save by a few whose quarters are in and about that place. Some of them frequently have to go as far as fifteen 'miles alone, but they are seldom or never lost, and no instance is 'known of their killing sheep or doing mischief on the road.' How very extraordinary!' Yes, men accustomed to see hounds turned out in the style of the Duke of Beaufort's or Lord Yarborough's would scarcely believe it possible to hunt in this way; nevertheless, it proves there ' is no royal road to sport, as few packs can show a better average of runs than the Sinnington, taking into consideration the country 'they hunt over.' I suppose it is a rough one?' Very, being composed of dingles, woods, and steep hills, while " part of it lies on the moors, where, at times, they find wild foxes that run the horses clean out of sight, and the hounds are not heard of for a day or two. Their low country is rather lost for the want of a few more coverts, or else there is a pretty bit to ' ride over round Normanby Bridge and Marton. The boundaries, 'I believe, have never been changed, and the hunt is formed in the shape of the letter V; it is bounded eastwards by Lord Middleton's and Sir Harcourt Johnstone's, somewhere about Pickering, and 'westward by the Rye, nominally, but, practically, they can go as far as they like, even to Thirsk.' Who was the first master?' 'I am afraid all record is lost, and the earliest I have been able to 'make out is Mr. Wells of Pickering, who hunted the country for 'some years, and at that time had part of the old Hambleton, which 'was the hill country above Thirsk, of which Mr. Fred Bell was the last master, whose huntsman, Thomas Swalwell, is still to be . seen out with the Bedale on a young one: Mr. Marshall succeeded 6 him, and his huntsman was George Brown, who carried the horn for sixteen seasons, and was presented with a testimonial on retiring, and was succeeded, in 1837, by John Atkinson. During this time Mr. John Abbey, Mr. R. Hill of Thornton, 'who hunted Sir H. Johnstone's country, and Mr. C. Dowker were 'going with them, also Mr. Kendal, uncle of the present master. In the year 1840, Mr. W. Ewbank of Terrington, a racing man, was going. Mr. Marshall of Railton, Mr. Shepherd of Dowthwaite Dale, Mr. Ellerby, of Salton, and Mr. Cowen, who kept the hotel ' at Helmsley. We also find Sir Thomas Legard of Duncombe Park, Lord Nevill, now Earl of Abergavenny, who lived at Woodhall, 'Mr. Mark Foulis, who went more with Sir Tatton Sykes, Mr. Cayley of Wydale, Mr. Strickland of Hildenley, also well known 'with the Holderness, Sir John Johnstone, who has divided his 'favours between many packs, John Woodall of Scarborough, 'E. Hebden of Scarborough, who has now hunted for many years, 'Nesfield of Scarborough, and Colonel (now General) Malcolm. 'E. S. Wormald succeeded Mr. Kendall, and after him came 'Mr. W. Worsley of Hovingham Hall, who hunted from Sinnington |