Scalby Manor near Scarborough, North Yorkshire was built in 1885 by Edwin Brough. He was the leading breeder and trainer in England of bloodhounds at his time and when the Whitechapel murders occurred several years later he was invited by the Commissioner of Police to help track the killer. The house which was then called Wyndyate remained a private residence until the late 1930s when it was used as a guest house and then became a hotel. Today it is a restaurant and a pub. [1]
Edwin Brough (1844–1929) was born in 1844 in Leek, Staffordshire. His father was John Brough who was a partner in the family silk manufacturing company of Brough, Nicholson & Hall Ltd. His grandfather had founded the firm in 1812. [2] At an early age Edwin entered the family business and in 1869 became a partner in the company. [3]
In 1882 at the age of 38 he married Helen Graham (1849–1923) and three years later he commissioned the famous architects Sugden & Son to build Scalby Manor (then called Wyndyate). He retired from the silk manufacturing firm [4] and became a bloodhound breeder and trainer. He had started breeding bloodhounds in 1871 [5] and by 1888 had become one of the leading bloodhound experts in England. His kennels at Scalby Manor still exist. In 1888 the Whitechapel murders were causing outcry and alarm. Indignant at the impotence of the police, the public plied the authorities with no less than 1,200 letters per day containing suggestions for the murderer's capture. Of these 800 advocated the trial of bloodhounds. The Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren contacted Edwin and asked him to demonstrate the skills of his dogs so that they could track Jack the Ripper. On 4 October 1888 Edwin received a communication from the police and on the following Saturday he went to London with his two best dogs called Barnaby and Burgho. The dogs worked together as a team and had been trained to hunt “the clean shoe”. That is to follow the trail of a man whose shoes have not been prepared in any way by the application of blood or aniseed which would leave a strong trail. A description of his gentle training methods was given in a newspaper of that time. It also described the trials which read as follows.
During the weeks the hounds were in London no further crime occurred, and the opportunity of utilising their services was lost. Sir Charles kept them until it seemed that the Jack the Ripper scare was over. The hounds were then returned to Edwin. They had not left London more than two or three days when another murder was committed. Obviously their presence exercised a deterrent effect on the killer. [7]
Several reporters visited Scalby Manor in the late nineteenth century and gave a detailed description of the property. “The Windsor Magazine” reporter A. Croxton-Smith came in 1895 and described his kennels in the following terms.
In 1901 “The Scarborough Magazine” made the following observations.
In 1902 Edwin dispersed his kennels [10] and moved with his wife Helen to Hastings in Sussex. He died there in 1929. His obituary was in “The Times”. [11]
After the Broughs left the house was let as a furnished residence for the next sixteen years. Then in 1918 it was advertised for sale [12] and bought by the Hodgson family who remained there for the next twenty years.
Malcolm Elliot Hodgson (1877–1963) was born in 1877 in Shipley, West Yorkshire. His father was John Hodgson of Nocton Hall in Lincolnshire. He became an engineer but when his father died in 1902 he inherited a substantial amount of money [13] and some years later he retired. In 1904 he married Mary Gwendolen Elizabeth Mitchell who was the daughter of Thomas Mitchell of Upwood near Bingley. [14] Her grandfather, Henry Illingworth, was the founder with his brother Alfred Illingworth of Whetley Mills, one of the largest textile factories in Bradford. [15] The couple had two sons.
In 1919 they bought Scalby Manor and brought up their two sons Christopher and Peter. Their eldest son Christopher in 1934 married Helen Amy Blunt the daughter of Alfred Blunt, the Bishop of Bradford. The wedding was widely reported in the newspapers. [16]
In 1939 the Hodgsons sold Scalby Manor to the Scarborough Borough Council and moved to Yew Court in Scalby. It was used as a guest house and then became a hotel. Today it is a restaurant and a pub.
Fox hunting is a traditional activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, normally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds", follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.
Scent hounds are a type of hound that primarily hunts by scent rather than sight. These breeds are hunting dogs and are generally regarded as having some of the most sensitive noses among dogs. Scent hounds specialize in following scent or smells. Most of them tend to have long, drooping ears and large nasal cavities to enhance smell sensitivity. They need to have relatively high endurance to be able to keep track of scent over long distances and rough terrain. It is believed that they were first bred by the Celts by crossbreeding mastiff-type dogs with sighthounds. The first established scent hounds were St. Hubert Hounds bred by monks in Belgium during the Middle Ages.
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The Fox and the Hound is a 1967 novel written by American novelist Daniel P. Mannix and illustrated by John Schoenherr. It follows the lives of Tod, a red fox raised by a human for the first year of his life, and Copper, a half-bloodhound dog owned by a local hunter, referred to as the Master. After Tod causes the death of the man's favorite hound, man and dog relentlessly hunt the fox, against the dual backdrops of a changing human world and Tod's normal life in hunting for food, seeking a mate, and defending his territory. As preparation for writing the novel, Mannix studied foxes, both tame and wild, a wide variety of hunting techniques, and the ways hounds appear to track foxes, seeking to ensure his characters acted realistically.
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