Building record 15843/2 - Memorial to Bluecap in the yard of the Cheshire Hunt Kennels

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 402173 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Obelisk: erected 1772 but moved here from Forest Hill c1959. Ashlar buff and pink sandstone. The square base is surrounded by a low wall carrying stout plain bar iron railings. On the base is a plain square pier with moulded plinth and cornice carrying an obelisk. The north face of the pier has a brass plaque reading :
To the Memory of old Bluecap a Fox Hound the late Property of the Hon. John Smith Barry This obelisk Reader is a Monument rais'd To a shade, tho' a Hound, that deserves to be prais'd For if Life's but a Stage where on each act a Part And true greatness a Form, that's deriv'd from the Heart If Fame, Honour and Glory depend on the Deed Then O Bluecap, rare Bluecap, well boast of thy Breed if no Tear, yet a Glass, will we pour on the Brute So high fam'd as he was in the glorious Pursuit But no more of this Theme, since the Life's but a Race And Bluecap but gone to the Death of the CHACE
in good copperplate script.
Bluecap was a famous foxhound of the Tarporley Hunt Club who won a challenge race for 500 guineas on Newmarket Heath in 1763.