Fland and Ferb
The first Ifold hounds were Fland and Ferb, a litter brother and sister bred by E. MacLeod. They were born on 7 July 1918, by Sheelin of Caldy out of Hindhead Molly, and registered in February 1920. Montagu Scott used their names to establish the Ifold line before his move to Sussex was complete.
Ferb produced a litter by Fland on 27 March 1920. The litter was registered in July 1921, after the family had reached Ifold. Montagu Scott then bought Eogan and Lady Crochen, another brother and sister bred by MacLeod, and added Lady Clodagh from Captain Hudson’s Brabyns kennel.
Muggins O’Moyle and Mavourneen O’Moyle arrived from breeders Major and Mrs Moore. By the end of 1921 the kennel held several related strains from breeders who had helped restore the Irish Wolfhound after its nineteenth-century decline.
The 1922 litters
Fland and Lady Crochen produced a litter at Ifold on 20 January 1922. A week later Eogan and Deirdre of Ifold produced another, and Torna of Ifold came from that mating. Ferb produced a further litter by Michael on 26 July; Lupin of Ifold and Cruachan of Ifold were among the puppies.
Torna grew into an exceptionally large young hound. A contemporary report gave his weight as 152 pounds at twelve months, with a height of thirty-five inches at the shoulder and a girth of forty-one inches. At Crufts he won the Special Limit, Limit and Open classes and received the Challenge Certificate.
Cruachan entered a different public life. He became one of the hounds associated with the Irish Guards, continuing the regiment’s use of an Irish Wolfhound as its mascot. His name carried Ifold from the Sussex park to military ceremony.
Hounds sent abroad
A litter by Eogan out of Felixstowe Ballyneety was born on 12 September 1922. Heks of Ifold later travelled to Norway, where she joined Varg of Ifold, a dog from the Michael and Ferb litter. Their owner, Mr Cappelen, exhibited them at the Christiania Dog Show.
Other Ifold hounds went to America, Africa and European kennels. Breeders sought the estate’s combination of size, bone, movement and working condition. Advertisements used Ralph Montagu Scott’s London addresses in Piccadilly and later Lancaster Gate, while the dogs themselves carried the Ifold prefix in pedigrees abroad.
The international sales came from a kennel that remained rooted in Sussex. Each exported animal had been bred among the grass runs, stables, park and woodland of the old estate.
Patrick, Kerri and Tess
Deirdre of Ifold produced Wolf of Ifold and Patrick of Ifold in March 1923. Patrick became one of the kennel’s leading champions. The Kennel Gazette selected him for its frontispiece in June 1924 and praised his head, bone, quarters and movement.
Torna, Kerri and Tess of Ifold also won at major shows. Results printed in the sporting and general press repeatedly carried the estate name to breeders. The hounds competed in classes judged on breed type, sound construction and movement, while Montagu Scott also promoted their speed and field ability.
The kennel’s photographs paired large hounds with handlers in the park and recorded the scale for which the Ifold dogs became known. Patrick’s appearance in the Kennel Gazette in June 1924 marked the height of their show-ring reputation.
Patrick came from Deirdre of Ifold and the influential sire Wyke Mark Dan O’Hagarty. The same litter produced Wolf of Ifold, Gerg of Ifold and Findchoem of Ifold. Their distribution among different owners carried the mating into several kennels.
Running a large kennel
The Ifold establishment usually held between thirty and fifty hounds, and sixty-nine were recorded on the estate at its largest. High wire fencing fixed to oak posts enclosed long grass runs. Separate quarters kept stud dogs, brood bitches and young stock under control, while brick kennels and converted stables sheltered whelping bitches and puppies.
A kennel man and a boy carried out feeding, cleaning, bedding, grooming and exercise. Raw meat, hound meal, milk preparations and supplements were mixed in large troughs. Raised wooden feeders kept the food at a suitable height for the growing dogs, and fresh bones entered the daily ration.
Many of the adult hounds slept outdoors through the year. Their hard coats, constant exercise and dry bedding suited the open-air regime. Ferb reared thirteen puppies from one litter of fifteen, a feat remembered in later accounts of the kennel.
Whelping demanded close records of matings, births, weight and survival. Brood bitches moved to quieter brick quarters, and puppies passed from milk preparations to hound meal and meat as they grew. The estate staff also prepared dogs for railway journeys, shows and export, with crates, papers and owners’ instructions added to ordinary kennel work.
Exercise in the Ifold park
The long carriage drive, park and woods allowed the hounds to cover ground beyond the space available to most kennels. Trained dogs ran through oak and birch coverts, crossed pasture and returned to the whistle. Montagu Scott hunted with them and used field work to test speed, scent and obedience.
The estate’s landscape had been laid out for a country house. Old oaks stood in the park, pine grew along the former ride, and Loxwoodhills Pond lay among wooded banks. The rabbit warren beyond the park supplied controlled quarry under the keeper’s eye.
Show reports concentrated on conformation. The Ifold system joined show breeding to sustained outdoor work. The hounds returned to their grass runs after exercise across hundreds of acres.
Cragwood Darragh and the Atlantic connection
In 1924 Montagu Scott imported Cragwood Darragh from the United States. British breeders more often sent stock across the Atlantic, so the arrival of an established American hound attracted attention. Darragh added the Cragwood line to the Ifold breeding programme.
Cragwood Padraic, a descendant of Darragh, later lived with the family of United States President Herbert Hoover. American writing on Padraic recalled the Ifold methods of space, exercise and careful feeding.
Montagu Scott also helped establish the Irish Wolfhound Association in 1924. The association issued a magazine and organised a field trial before merging with the longer-established Irish Wolfhound Club. Its programme gave working ability a formal place beside exhibition.
The association’s field trial tested hounds away from the show bench. Montagu Scott wanted breeders to retain the speed and pursuit expected of a giant sighthound. The magazine carried pedigrees, reports and discussion before the organisation joined the Irish Wolfhound Club, founded during the Victorian revival to promote the breed.
The end of the Ifold kennel
The kennel’s greatest achievements came between 1921 and 1925. Its name appeared in pedigrees, advertisements, show reports and illustrated features, while dogs bred at Ifold entered kennels across Britain and overseas.
Financial trouble on the estate deepened during 1925 after the failure of the associated pig-farming enterprise. Ralph Montagu Scott filed a bankruptcy petition in December, and a receiving order followed in early 1926. The estate was offered for sale in July 1926, including the mansion, park, farms and buildings that had housed the kennel.
The Ifold prefix survived in the descendants of Fland, Ferb, Torna, Cruachan, Patrick, Heks, Varg and the Cragwood connection long after the auction of 20 July 1926.
