Thursday 18 June 2015

CAPTAIN PEARSON "SAM" AND NATHANIEL COOKE ESQ. "BUTCHER BILL"

May the Editor intervene for a moment to offer his humble apologies to both these worthies, for the liberty taken with familiar names and sobriquets? 

Captain PEARSON, after serving his Queen in more than one Cavalry regiment, as well as in the Volunteers, finally settled down in his native town of Macclesfield as a silk manufacturer, where his hospitality and bonhomie became proverbial. 

The story of the picture is this: Sam Pearson was doing a deal" with Mr. COOKE for his horse - but he entered the preliminary objection, that the horse was too slow for him. Now Sam rode an honest sixteen stone, which he entrusted to the care of great weight-carrying animals, of whom all he asked was, that they should amble along through a run at the rate of six miles an hour, and lob through the gaps as they lay in his way. "Too slow! " retorts Bill, "he is not so slow as yours;" - hence, at the instigation of a bystander, sprang the sporting match here given, the said match being thus made a contest, not of speed, but its absence, Please admire the earnest and determined expression on the benevolent face of one, and the humorous triumph in the backward glance of the other. 

H. R. CORBET ESQ.

Master of the Cheshire Hounds, 1866-1876 

Master and Huntsman of South Cheshire, 1876-1900 


Mr. CORBET, one of the finest horsemen Cheshire ever produced, has manifestly 
lost his fox. 

Deep dejection is plainly pourtrayed on Master and hounds. He reminds us of 
the LIVELE BO-PEEP of our childhood. 


Huntsman and Pack
Come Foxless back,
And trouble they had to find him;
Sad and alone 
He trudges home,
They trail their sterns behind them. 

JOSHUA DICKSON ESQ. & CAPT. E. PARK YATES

Again a contrast. Time had taught Mr. DICKSON a very old-gentlemanly method. 

He is poised in a gap, and in much greater danger from the impetuosity of the Master's mount than he is at all aware. Notice the use he makes of his hands. 

JAMES SEARLE ESQ. JAMES H. SMITH BARRY ESQ.

Conjecture cannot suggest the motive of this drawing, unless it is to present a contrast of seat and method of riding. 

One thing we feel is not meant, i.e., that Mr. SEARLE is meditating a violent assault on Mr. BARRY.  Mr. Searle was a kind and enthusiastic pursuer, as was Mr. Barry, and both their names are James, voila tout. 

Of Mr. Barry we will speak on a later page. 

CAPTAIN EDMUND PARK YATES OF INCE HALL

MASTER OF THE CHESHIRE, 1875-1895 

"Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus 
Tam cari Capitis" - (Hor. Car. i. 24.) 

What Horace sang of Virgil may well be said of the subject of this plate; for what words could express the grief and regret we all felt at the sad and sudden end of our much loved Master, "tam cari Capitis"? 

A master of hounds has many, nay daily, opportunities for consulting his own private convenience, wishes, and comfort; and, naturally, has equal opportunities to forget himself and think only of the sport and desires of his field. According as he does one or the other, will he be regarded with esteem and affection. Certainly no one could be more considerate and self-forgetful than our Captain. 

When to this fine characteristic we add a noble presence, a genial manner springing from real kindness of heart, adequate means and an open-handed use of the same, and last, but not least, an inborn love of hounds and thorough knowledge of hunting in all its branches, and, as a graceful ornament, a popular Helpmeet, a true partner of his interests, we have indeed an ideal master such as can rarely be found. It did not need so tragical an end to a life of kindness and generosity to make our grief unlimited and our loss irreparable. Such was our PARK YATES! "He was a man, take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again."