266 MEMOIR OF 



Sheppard flying over it, like a dragon on 

 wings, looking back as he did so over his 

 shoulder, and singing out to Jack Gumming, 

 " Where be they Knights to now, I should like 

 to knaw ; " alluding to Mr. Frederick and Lewis 

 Knight, of Simonsbath ; two well-known brilliant 

 performers over any country, but especially hard 

 to catch over Exmoor. 



Paradoxical though it may appear, never 

 w^ere the prospects of fox-hunting brighter in 

 the north of Devon than when those happy and 

 successful meetings at South Molton were at 

 length brought to a close. For the flame that 

 had first kindled them, and the fuel on which 

 they had fed, had neither burned out nor 

 smouldered away ; but, on the contrary, had 

 spread with a vitality that laid hold of the heart 

 of the country, and continued to gain fresh 

 vigour in every succeeding year. 



After the expiration of that club it is not a 

 little remarkable that, within a circuit of thirty 

 miles, taking Russell's country as a centre, two 

 or three packs, whose fame had hitherto been 

 little known beyond the limits of the western 

 counties, should have rapidly acquired a pro- 

 minence which, in point of blood, looks, and 

 efficiency, would have borne a comparison with 

 the most renowned packs of the present age. 



In the Chulmleigh country, for example, the 

 hounds of the present Earl of Portsmouth, soon 



