Rural Sports in Ashridge & Berkhamsted

John Henry Walsh, under the pseudonym “Stonehenge”, wrote a classic Victorian sporting manual in 1856.[1] In his introduction, Stonehenge considers the effect of field sports in promoting health, concluding that “the habits of daring and endurance” instilled by such “manly sports” as the “steeple-chase and the modern cricket-field” (made hazardous with fast bowling becoming the fashion) had prepared our plucky British officers and men for the carnage of the Crimean battle fields. As for moral and religious objections, the author examines the laws of God (where he finds in the Old Testament that the chase was permitted; he stresses that elements of cruelty should be subdued), the laws of nature (where the circle of life, predator and prey, are described) and the cause of law and order (where field sports may prevent resorting to less healthy outlets such as the public house). Using Walsh’s book as our guide, we can explore some of the rural sports enjoyed by the inhabitants of Ashridge and Berkhamsted.

Shooting

As a first requirement for any chase, “… all sportsmen should remember, that before they can have sport, they must have game in existence”.[2]

Dwight’s Pheasantries was likely established in 1788 and continued a successful business rearing birds by the thousand on land partly leased by Lord Brownlow, and exporting them and their eggs all over the world.[3] Men were on duty day and night with shot-guns to beat animal marauders, or others. One of these men was fined a shilling for shooting an owl – he maintained that he was “defending his master’s interests, as one owl was seen with a pheasant in its claws.”[4] Unfortunately, even Dwight’s employees could not be trusted with the valuable produce. In 1879, Frederick Bedford was charged with stealing 18 pheasants’ eggs. “Mr Dwight said he found 14 eggs of his in a corn bin… which he marked and had watched, and Bedford was afterwards found with them in his possession.”[5]

Stonehenge offers advice for employing gamekeepers: “To be really useful, [they] should be almost more than mortal ; a perfect keeper should be handy, honest, clever, and brave ; he should be civil, yet not too good-natured ; and above all, he should be fond of his business.”[6] Preserving the game from vermin and poachers was all-important if there was to be sufficient for the shooting season. The keeper also has the conflicting task of preserving foxes, but might be tempted to scupper their chances by feeding them so that they are “so fat and lazy that they cannot stand five minutes before a good pack of hounds”.[7]

There are plenty of examples of poachers being caught in and around Berkhamsted. James Mallard was acquitted of duck stealing in 1882, but his criminal record between 1850 to 1867 includes trespass and poaching, fishing in water belonging to Earl Brownlow, and assaults on at least six people including cutting and wounding Mary Bennett who was “too ill to give evidence, and not out of danger” but who inexplicably became his wife.[8]

In 1865, there was a newspaper report concerning the unusual number of prosecutions under the Game Laws. Trespassers in search of conies on land belonging to Earl Brownlow were brought to justice while “Mr. Punch’s Whig friends” enjoyed their rabbit-shooting expeditions. The account states that the “parties really to blame are those who allow the vermin to accumulate to a preposterous extent”.[9]

In 1885, G. Bolt, head keeper to Earl Brownlow was able to prevent William How of Hemel Hempstead and three associates including “Irish Jack” to profit from their night poaching at Little Gaddesden. Shots were heard in the Hoo and when How saw the keepers he dropped his bag containing pheasants.[10] Game over.

Properties were advertised to accommodate this popular pastime. In 1884, a valuable freehold residential estate of 98 acres came up for sale in Berkhamsted, two and a half miles from the station, affording “excellent rabbit and hare shooting [with] a small covert in which pheasants may be reared”.[11]

Guns of all descriptions were manufactured in Berkhamsted by Edward Mowday who continued the business established in 1845 by his father Simpson.[12] The landed gentry were regular customers of Mr Walklate, the saddler. “The Smith-Dorrien family placed orders for shooting bags, and once a year the Colonel himself called to order cartridge cases, which he gave to his friends. These cases were made from the skins of seals caught off the Scilly Isles.”[13]

Hunting

The grand old man of Berkhamsted, Henry Nash, wrote: “The love of the chase must have been an innate passion in man from the earliest time, for many centuries of civilization have failed to eradicate the desire to hunt down and kill any animal that will fly from his presence”.[14]

Stonehenge first considers the game to be hunted: red deer and fallow deer, hare and fox, the latter described as “cherished object of the sportsman’s care, and no animal is so jealously watched and tended as is Mr. Wiley”, without which the fox, like the wolf, would have been annihilated.[15]

In preparation for the hunt, the red deer or fallow deer were deprived of their horns and trained to gallop daily so as to be fit for the chase. Two or three “yeomen-prickers” or “verderers” accompanied the deer in its cart and spurred him into action. On capture, they prevented the hounds from killing him, then hobbled him and replaced him on the cart. Walsh writes: “It often happens that the same deer is hunted from twelve to twenty times in the season, and at last becomes so used to the gallop as to show little fear of the hounds”.[16]

Berkhamsted’s local photographer J.T. Newman captured the essence of the hunt in several articles published in country gentlemen’s magazines. The Berkhamsted Staghounds (a larger variety of foxhounds) was an old established pack kept in kennels on the Common by huntsmen Richard and his son John Rawle, often mentioned in accounts of various meets over the years.

The North Devon Journal had some fulsome praise for: “A capital little pack of staghounds… presided over by the ever-genial John Rawle, who shows such rattling sport to the ‘venison-followers’ of that district… the ‘Berkhamsted Buckhounds’ are rapidly gaining a place in the calendar of crack packs of our day” and “The Buckhounds… are still having clinking sport, and John Rawle, or ‘genial Jack,’ as he is generally called, making hunting circles ring with the name of the B. B. H.”[17]

In 1873, there is an amusing account of the collision of Baron Rothschild’s hounds and the Berkhamsted buckhounds: “In the thickest part of the wood, just before descending the hill to the archway leading to Haresfoot Park, a strange hound was observed. A minute later, and just before we reach the arch, another pack is upon us with a field of 40 or 50 horsemen. ‘Hullo, Dick!’ says Fred Cox, ‘you are hunting our stag!’ ‘Hullo yourself,’ says Dick; ‘How the blessings do I know we’ren hunting your’n, or you aint hunting our’n!’. A moment’s blank look, and all joined heartily in the laugh at so unexpected a collision.”[18]

Norcott Court in Berkhamsted was a frequent meeting place for The Hertfordshire Foxhounds.

The Berkhamsted Harriers (looking more like foxhound than beagle) appeared often in the press, though Walsh appears disappointed at the speed with which this cross-breed finished up its prey, thus preventing “all those artifices on the part of the hare which give zest to this otherwise slow amusement”.[19]

Stonehenge describes the attributes of the beagle “the hare-hound must differ from the fox-hound… exquisite nose… great patience, and considerable cunning… he must pack closely” to combat the hare’s tendency to double back on itself to foil its pursuers.[20]

In 1898, J.T. Newman relates a story about raising the Berkhampstead pack of beagles: “The hare would more frequently escape from the pack… in the matter of speed pure and simple they have no chance with her. With beagles… she hears the ‘music’ of the pack, says to herself, we may suppose, ‘Pooh, beagles!’… sprints gaily away… till she loses their voices in the distance, when she crouches or ‘squats.’ In due time the little hounds, faithfully following their noses, make themselves heard again…”.[21]

Fishing

Walsh describes several types of fish and the rods, lines, reels, hooks, floats, leads, nets, bait and other accessories required to catch them, including illustrations.

The archives do not contain many references to this sport in Berkhamsted other than illegal activities. “John Olliff, of Hemel Hempstead, charged by Wm. Ghost with fish poaching in a stream belonging to Earl Brownlow. Olliff said he could produce 20 witnesses to prove he was in the fields looking after his donkey.” The case against him was clearly proved.[22]

Games played with ball

Stonehenge extols the merits of cricket above any other ball game in uniting all classes “the peer and the peasant constantly seen in the same eleven”, the absence of gambling, its healthful tendency and “the absence of intemperance”. He suggests it is the favourite game of country village, county town and metropolis. Indeed, Henry Nash writes: “Cricket was a game that found much favour with boys, and amongst her men Berkhamsted could boast of some skilful players”.[23]

In 1896, “…it is pleasant to hear that the Merry Butchers of Berkhampstead recently… sent a challenge to the Jolly Bakers to meet them in battle on the cricket-field… the Staff of Life men won.”

The next chapter considers other “minor games with ball”, in which the first short section is devoted to “foot-ball”. He first describes how the ball is made of stout calf leather into which a large bladder is inserted and blown up, the whole securely laced. The boundaries of the playing field are marked out with sticks at the four corners. The game proceeds with the ball being carried or kicked and the opposition bringing down the ball-holder by any means possible. It emerges that Stonehenge is in fact describing “a game much in vogue in some rural districts… chiefly played at Rugby, and the other public schools”.

In the nineteenth century, football in Berkhamsted was a “significant part of public-school life… played in the castle grounds [using] a round ball with a certain amount of handling but, unlike Rugby school, no hand-to-hand passing was allowed.”[24]

Stonehenge sets aside about six pages for describing croquet and advertisements appear in regional newspapers for acquiring this “fashionable and elegant” game.[25] According to one advertisement, there was a full report on croquet “with rules, instructions, &c., in The Queen, the ladies’ newspaper, illustrated”.[26] However, there is scant evidence of its popularity in Berkhamsted.

In contrast, Walsh devotes barely a page to golf and even less to tennis. The ‘Small Talk’ section of The Sketch describes an encounter with a foreigner who asked “Who are those people with sticks in a bag with lumps at the end?” The observer explained that they were golfers, but failed to give him an idea of golf till he said it was “croquet on a large scale with a small ball”.[27]

In 1890, Mr Patrick of the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club visited Berkhamsted to see how far a golf links could be laid on the common and  a golf course was laid out shortly afterwards. A golf club was formed and a meeting held to elect a committee. It was believed that “a good golf club would add much to the already great attractions of Berkhampstead”.[28]

In 1879, the annual prize meeting of the Berkhampstead Lawn Tennis Club took place in the Castle Grounds. “The first prize [for the doubles contest] was won by Mr Richard Wood and Miss Alma Smith-Dorrien… mainly owing to her splendid and sure returns.” A cold collation was served in a tent and there was a dance later at the Town Hall.[29]

Rural games and out-door amusements

Many pages are devoted to the equipment and rules of archery. Other games in this section include quoits, skittles and curling.

At a meeting of the Herts Toxophilite Society (archery) in St Albans in 1839, the most successful shots were Lord Grimstone and Lady Emily Grimstone of Berkhamsted. In fulsome praise, the Court Journal reports: “We are convinced that we have the bump of gregariousness… of all county meetings, races, balls, fairs, cricket matches, and quintains, we hold none comparable to bow-meetings”. Less about the sport, the article continues: “We love to see Beauty in a morning dress, tripping over the fresh grass which rises beneath the taper foot; we love to see the glossy curls stirred by the pure breeze.”[30]

Artificial modes of locomotion

This section includes swimming, skating, riding and driving. Cycling is not mentioned in the Manual at all; it was in its infancy at the time of writing (1857). Before it became a public annoyance and was prohibited in 1878, “Bathing in the canal at Berkhampstead, between the railway and town, a favourite and healthy practice at this season of the year”.[31]

With never a splash, “Mr. and Master Lubbock execute a ‘double-lock’ dive from height of 30 ft. The world’s youngest trick diver must surely be Master Peter Lubbock who, although only six years old, is an expert. He is trained by his father, who is athletic instructor at Berkhampstead School.”[32] Lieutenant Peter Lawson Lubbock was a test pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service and died in 1948, aged 27, in a plane crash at Donibristle, Fife, Scotland. He was buried at Rectory Lane Cemetery.

Skating and sliding on canal, castle moat and ponds of the neighbourhood were favourite pastimes whenever the ice was of sufficient thickness. “There have been a few immersions and any number of tumbles, several taking place in the slippery streets.”[33]

The horse used for riding, commonly called “a hack” is a “mongrel animal, and can seldom be bred with certainty… buying hacks at the hammer is a complete lottery”.[34] Stonehenge is disparaging of the lady’s horse “often… a useless brute, fit only to be shot”.[35]

Inspector Goodyear charged “Charles Lines of Marsworth… with being drunk and unfit to manage a horse he was riding in Berkhampstead”.  He was seen striking the horse on the head with a broken stirrup so Goodyear “locked him up till Monday”.[36]

Walsh describes a wide range of carriages that were used for pleasure as opposed to stage and hired carriages. King’s Coach Builder in Berkhamsted was “patronised by the nobility and gentry and by the milkman and baker, too. – Almost every type of vehicle was made from start to finish. Customers were keen on the latest design; what’s more, every whim could be satisfied on the spot”.[37]

Illegal amusements

Walsh writes: “No reference will be found to Boxing, Cock-fighting, [also Bull- and Badger-baiting] or any other illegal amusement, because whatever difference of opinion there may be as to their advantages or otherwise, there ought to be none on the propriety of obeying the law of the land ; and while that orders their discontinuance, no good subjects have any right to indulge in them.”[38]

Birtchnell writes: “Not pleasant to recall is Hertfordshire’s long, dishonourable interest in cockfighting. The district around Marsworth remained a stronghold of this ‘sport’ long after it was made illegal, and tradition has it that this ‘No Man’s Land’ was chosen because the promoters of cockfights could easily dodge from Herts to Bucks, or vice versa, if pursued by the police.”[39]

In 821 pages, Walsh instructs sportsmen and women on a variety of rural pastimes, many of which were enjoyed by inhabitants in and around Berkhamsted.           

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[1] Walsh, J.H., Manual of British Rural Sports (1856). In 1857, Walsh became editor of The Field magazine.

[2] Walsh, Manual, p.1

[3] Sherwood, J., ‘Dwight’s Pheasantries – a long-established Family Business’, Chronicle, vol VII, pp.47-53

[4] Evening Telegraph (Aug 1934)

[5] Bucks Herald (May 1879)

[6] Walsh, Manual, pp.2-3

[7] Walsh, Manual, p.9

[8] Bucks Advertiser & Aylesbury News (May 1867)

[9] Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser (Feb 1865)

[10] Bucks Herald (Jan 1885)

[11] The Field (Sep 1884)

[12] Bucks Herald (Aug 1869)

[13] Beorcham, Berkhamsted Review (Feb 1965)

[14] Nash, H., Reminiscences of Berkhamsted (1890), p.3

[15] Walsh, Manual, pp.118-119

[16] Walsh, Manual, p.130

[17] North Devon Journal (Jan & Mar 1880)

[18] Bucks Herald (Jan 1873)

[19] Walsh, Manual, p.122

[20] Walsh, Manual, p.121

[21] Newman, J.T., The Sketch (1898)

[22] Bucks Herald (Jan 1873)

[23] Nash, Reminiscences, p.50

[24] Boakes, J., ‘Football – The Beautiful Game in Berkhamsted’, Chronicle, vol. XIX (Mar 2022), pp.61-66 for the history of football in Berkhamsted.

[25] Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette (Aug 1865)

[26] Bucks Chronicle and Bucks Gazette (Nov 1865)

[27] The Sketch (Feb 1896), p.10

[28] Bucks Herald (Dec 1890)

[29] Bucks Herald (Aug 1879)

[30] The Court Journal (Oct 1839)

[31] Bucks Herald (Jun 1878)

[32] The Sphere (Sep 1928)

[33] Bucks Herald (Feb 1895)

[34] Walsh, Manual, p.606

[35] Walsh, Manual, p.617

[36] Bucks Advertiser & Aylesbury News (Jul 1873)

[37] Boakes, J., ‘King’s Coach Builders’, Chronicle, vol. XI (2014), p.35

[38] Walsh, Manual, p.vi

[39] Beorcham, ‘Cockfighting’, Berkhamsted Review (Jan 1957)