Thrale history

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May to September she was paid two or three shillings from the poor fund. But in September Mr. Thrale paid five and six for a warrant to arrest Stokes and then a week later the entry is made pd. ye charges for taking Stokes and marrying him to Mary Prentice and my journey to Hempsted £5. 2. 6.' So Mary being safely, and we hope happily, married, we hear no more of her in Sandridge.³⁴

During the time of this long line of Ralph Thrale at No Mans Land. there was much sporting activity. A nineteenth century account relates that No Mans Land was a part of Hertfordshire which was a favourite rendezvous for the principal nobility of the County. The Earl of Salisbury attended the daily meetings of Harriers kept by Ralph Thrale at his residence at No Mans Land; part of the meadow there still retaining the name of Dog Kennel Orchard, where the pack was kennelled. Many of the surrounding gentry supported and joined the Hunt especially a gentleman, a friend of the Earl, named Twadel of Welwyn, to whose memory a tablet is erected in the parish church of that town. 'The Thrales of this period possessed much property and held a good position in the County. The No Mans Land estate had been, almost from time immemorial in the family, as the tablets in Sandridge church testify. There is a record which shows the friendly intercourse existing between the Earl and the then owner of No Mans Land. On one occasion of the meet, his Lordship, in the house, said 'these rooms, Ralph, are not sufficient for our accommodation and they must be enlarged'. These alterations were shortly commenced, but at the time of completion death terminated the life of the Earl and from thence the pack of Harriers declined in support and was finally broken up. In one of the rooms is a painting of the Earl on horseback at the unkennelling of the Harriers for the hunt; and the rooms that were kept for the reception of the aristocracy are now filled by what is known as Thrale's Collection.' Such is the newspaper account pasted into J.E. Cussan's own copy of his fistory of Hertfordshire.³⁵ The Earl of Salisbury mentioned was almost certainly the 5th Earl (1691 - 1728) who lived the life of an ordinary country gentleman and died fairly young. Of Thrale's Collection, more will be written later, but of hunting there is one other No Mans Land reminder. Above the fireplace in No Mans Land house is a painting of a hare hunt on wood in three panels. An expert opinion tells us that in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford there is a drawing by Francis Barlow (1626 - 1702) of a hare hunt which is almost identical with this painting, the only major difference being that the tree replaces a horseman. This opens up the

Footnotes

34. Historic Sandridge.↩︎
35. Herts Muniment Room. Cussans Vol. IV.↩︎