GOLDEN YEARS OF THE ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY
I feel compelled to add a little to my earlier posts on the history of dairy farming in South Cheshire.
First, I think that I need to explain a little more about the role of the aristocracy and the integral part that its members played in the area's social and economic development in the 19th century. And second, this provides a context for understanding the importance of fox hunting and horses in local culture.
As Mark Overton explains, the 19th century was like no other in that Malthusian constraints on population growth fortunately failed. Thanks to the Industrial Revolution (and the accompanying intensification of international trade), England faced an unprecedented and continuous increase in demand for agricultural commodities:
“In 1750 English population stood at about 5.7 million. It had probably reached this level before, in the Roman period, then around 1300, and again in 1650. But at each of these periods the population ceased to grow, essentially because agriculture could not respond to the pressure of feeding extra people [within a closed system].
Contrary to expectation, however, population grew to unprecedented levels after 1750, reaching 16.6 million in 1850, and agricultural output expanded with it”.
These developments also constituted a enormous opportunity for landowners. Whereas in the past rents had tended to stabilize and then fall on a cyclical basis, from 1750 or so onwards they tended upwards as product markets firmed, accompanied by increasing innovation and specialization.
As I have mentioned previously, some 400 km2 of Cheshire was held by aristocratic landlords in the mid-1800s, with 287 km2 (71,000 acres) being held by the four largest. This meant that as rents increased from say £1 13s 4d per acre in 1840 to £2 per acre 1870, the four largest landowners received an additional £47,000 per year (worth nearly £4 million per year in today’s money).
This extra cash funded the construction of extensive Gothic Castles and Jacobethan Great Houses, and the enjoyment of lavish lifestyles. However, the recipients also funded farm consolidation and farm house and building reconstruction, which reinforced the adoption of innovations and larger scale production by their tenant farmers.
From the fortunate larger farmer’s point of view, this was no bad thing. As cattle became relatively more expensive and cheese-making more demanding, it was sensible for all to ensure that costs should be shared between those who provided the capital in the form of land and those who provided the capital in the form of cattle (and who also bore the operating costs).
The New Zealand ‘Share Milking’ system is very different in form but has a similar underlying logic.
So there were two upshots from a social stance. The aristocracy had plenty of money and leisure – and they had created a relatively powerful class of large holding tenant farmers. And what kept both classes together in no small measure was the interest that emerged, and that they then both shared, in fox hunting and horse racing.
We have some interesting insights into the emergence of these trends in the form of a poem or ballad called ‘Farmer Dobbin’ written by Rowland Eyles Egerton-Warburton in 1853.
I have taken the liberty of straightening it out a bit and changing the surname references to the locals (Dobbin not being a Cheshire name). A shortened version is given below. Almost certainly, it was first recited in the Swan Inn in Tarporley, Cheshire around 1850.
FARMER DUTTON
‘Owd man, it’s well-nigh milking time, wherever hast thee bin
There’s slutch upon they coat, I fear, and blood upon thy chin?’
‘I’ve been to see the gentlefolk of Cheshire ride a run
Owd wench! I’ve been a-hunting and I’ve seen some rattling fun.
Our owd mare was at the smithy, when the huntsman he trots through
With Black Bill still hammering, the last nail in her shoe.
The woods lay weam and close, and so jovial seemed the day
Says I, “Owd mare, we’ll take a fling and see them go away”.
And what a power of gentlefolk did I set eyes upon
A reining in their hunters, all blood horses every one.
I seed that great commander in the saddle, Captain White
And the pack that thronged around him was indeed a gradely sight
The dogs looked smooth as satin, and himself as hard as nails,
And he gives the swells a caution not to ride upon their tails.
Says he “Young men of Manchester and Liverpool, come near,
I’ve just a word, a warning word, to whisper in your ear
When starting from the cover side, you see bold Reynolds burst
We cannot have no hunting if you gentlemen go first”.
Tom Rance has a single eye, worth many another’s two
He held his cap above his yed to show he had a view;
Tom’s voice was like the owd raven’s when he skriked ‘Tally-ho!’
For when the fox had seen Tom’s face, he thought it time to go.
Eh my! A pretty jingle then went ringing through the sky
Hounds Victory and Villager began the merry cry
Then every mouth was open from the owd’un to the pup
And all the pack together took the swelling chorus up.
Eh my! A pretty skouver then was kicked up in the vale
They skimmed across the running brook, they topped the post and rails
The did’na stop for razor cop - but played at touch and go -
And them as missed their footing there, lay doubled up below.
I seed the hounds a-crossing Farmer Fearnall’s boundary line
Whose daughter plays the piano and drinks white sherry wine
Gold rings upon her fingers and silk stockings on her feet
Says I “It won’t do him no harm to ride across his wheat!”
So tightly holding on by the yed, I hits the owd mare a whop
And ‘oo plumps into the wheat field going neck and crop
And when ‘oo floundered out on it, I catched another spin
And Missus that’s the occasion of the blood upon my chin.
I never risked another hap but kept the lane and then
In twenty minutes time, they turned on me again
The fox was finely daggled and the hounds were out of breath
When they killed him in the open and owd Dutton seed the death.
Now Missus, since the markets be doing moderate well
I’ve welly made my mind up to buy a nag myself
For to keep a farmer’s spirits up when things be getting low
There’s nothing like fox-hunting and rattling ‘Tally-ho!’
[adapted from ‘Farmer Dobbin’ by Rowland Eyles Egerton-Warburton, 1853]
COMMENT
The original is much longer and is marred for modern readers by its deliberately antique spelling and comedy turn dialect.
It was clearly written to entertain the members of the Tarporley (Cheshire) Hunt Club by providing a parody of the argot spoken by the farmers that they met on their estates – and a good deal of the poem consists of catalogue or ‘Who’s Who’ of the important members of the Hunt and local high society.
However, there are some interesting social insights to be drawn here.
In the first place, it is notable that the farmer is now welcome enough on the hunt and that by the 1850s he felt that things were going well enough to buy himself a ‘hunter’ (i.e. part thoroughbred horse).
Secondly, there is mention of the ‘young men of Manchester and Liverpool’ whose wealthy merchant and mill-owner fathers were happy to see hunting so that they could rub shoulders with the establishment – and maybe make a match with the daughters of the nobility.
Third, there is some attempt to mock the wealthy independent farm owner whose daughter ‘plays the piano and drinks white sherry wine’ (in the original the Farmer is called Farmer Flare-up). Obviously, not being beholden like the tenants he would very much resent the Hunt crossing his land.
One has to doubt though whether Farmer Dutton / Dobbin would capriciously ride across his neighbour’s wheat – this seems much more the sort of thing that the aristocratic or parvenu huntsmen would do.
And it is sobering to reflect on how new and synthetic Cheshire's fox hunting culture really is. As we will see later, the original Hunt Club that was founded in 1762 in Tarporley started off with hare coursing. It was only prosperity, farm consolidation and the widespread introduction and proper maintenance of hawthorn hedges that made fox hunting viable.
For all the social nuances, my Darlington family was totally enamoured with fox hunting and point-to-point / steeple chase horse racing – which of course went very much hand in hand. Point to point horses got a lot of their training in full cry, and riding to hounds was equally a way of testing a rider’s mettle.
I have therefore dropped in a photo of my grandfather Herbert Darlington’s pride and joy – Catherine the Great - who was a successful race horse and brood mare – and who, as we were never allowed to forget was half-sister to Russian Hero who won the Grand National in 1949!
THE CHESHIRE HUNT AS IT IS NOW
“Welcome to the online home of the Cheshire Hounds and the Cheshire Hunt Supporters Club.
The Cheshire Hunt was founded in 1763. The area hunted encompassed the whole of Cheshire. This vast area was subsequently divided between the Cheshire and the South Cheshire Hunts in 1877, and the two portions were then reunited in 1907. This separation occurred again from 1931 until 1946.
The country now hunted is about twenty five square miles with the main centres around Tarporley and Nantwich, with Chester, Kelsall, Whitchurch and Malpas at its boundaries.
The Hunt meets on a Tuesday and Saturday at 11am from November until mid March, with a bye day being held once a fortnight on a Thursday at 12noon.
Cheshire is predominantly a dairy county with miles of grass, fenced by hedges and ditches.
The Hunt uniform is a scarlet coat with hunt buttons. A green collar is worn by Hunt Staff, Masters, and by invitation of the Tarporley Hunt Club.
The kennels are situated in the North of the country. Thirty five couple of hounds are kept and the pack will vary from either a bitch or a mixed pack depending on the meet. Hounds are bred for speed and endurance, and many miles will be covered in a day’s activities”.
THE TARPORLEY HUNT CLUB [from Wikipedia]
‘The Tarporley Hunt Club is a hunt club which meets at Tarporley in Cheshire, England. Founded in 1762, it is the oldest surviving such society in England, and possibly the oldest in the world. Its members' exploits were immortalised in the Hunting Songs of Rowland Egerton-Warburton. The club also organised the Tarporley Races, a horse racing meeting, from 1776 until 1939. The club's patron is Charles, Prince of Wales.
At first the club organised hare coursing, but its focus had already begun to switch to fox hunting within the first few years. Membership was limited to twenty in 1764, expanded to twenty-five in 1769 and later to forty.] The club's headquarters soon became the Swan Hotel, which dates from 1769. In the founding set of rules, members were required to drink "three collar bumpers" after both dinner and supper, and, in the event of marriage, to present each club member with a pair of buckskin breeches.
The club used the first pack of foxhounds in Cheshire, whose master was John Smith-Barry, son of the fourth Earl of Barrymore, of Marbury Hall. Among the hounds was the famed Blue Cap, which had beaten the hound owned by Hugo Meynell, founder of the Quorn Hunt, in a race held in 1762. After Barry's death in 1784, the hunt used a pack kept by Sir Peter Warburton of Arley Hall, which later became known as the Cheshire Hounds.
Members of the Egerton, Cholmondeley, Grosvenor and other prominent local families joined not long after the club's foundation. Among the many early members who were important in county or national affairs were Sir Philip Egerton of Oulton Park; Richard Grosvenor, first Earl Grosvenor, of Eaton Hall; Field Marshal Stapleton Cotton, first Viscount Combermere, of Combermere Abbey; Thomas Cholmondeley of Vale Royal; and his son, also Thomas Cholmondeley, first Baron Delamere.
Rowland Egerton-Warburton, president in 1838 and later one of the club's few honorary members, was known as the club's poet laureate. He immortalised some of its members' exploits in his Hunting Songs, and also wrote a history of the club to accompany an edition of the verses.
George Wilbraham, one of the club's original founders, purchased an estate in Delamere Forest including Crabtree Green, which had been used as racecourse since the mid-17th century. In 1776, the club held a sweepstake there with seven runners, and the contest became an annual event.
In the 1800s, the Tarporley Races became a permanent fixture in the Racing Calendar. Originally, only horses owned or nominated by members could enter, but in 1805 or 1809, a silver cup was awarded for a "farmers' race". The members' race was ridden in hunting costume.
THE MODERN LOCAL POINT TO POINT RACE
As the website explains for the 2010 season:
“The Cheshire Hunt Point to Point will take place on Sunday 18 April 2010 at Alpraham, Nr Tarporley. The first race starts at two o’clock, although many visitors choose to arrive early to set up for lunch - candelabras and full dining sets have appeared in previous years!
There will be seven races and a parade of hounds later in the day. Those with a weakness for the odd flutter will be well-served by onsite bookmakers....
Various catering outlets, trade stands and amusements for the children will be available around the site, and there's every reason to make a day of it.
2010 will mark the fiftieth year of racing at this particular course at Alpraham and a celebration lunch will take place to mark the occasion. The lunch will be held adjacent to the paddock and tables will be retained all day so that guests can enjoy the racing from the comfort of their chairs.
A champagne reception will be held prior to lunch, and afternoon tea is included to ensure that a memorable day is had by all. Full details of how to obtain tickets can be downloaded here.
Admission – car parking costs £20, £30 or £35 for reserved forward parking. Tickets for the celebratory lunch cost £50 in addition to car parking charges.
Further details will be published as the event draws near.....”
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