FOX-HUNTING— EAELY AND LATE 11 



Some years ago it was my fate to be an eye- 

 witness of some of these early and late days with 

 the Exmoor and Dartmoor Foxhounds, and both, 

 strange to say, in the same season, and I propose 

 to describe one day of each kind, so as to give 

 my readers an idea of how the English national 

 sport is carried on in these wild and unpopulated 

 districts. 



The meet fixed for October 15, 18 — , was in 

 many respects a typical Exmoor one. In the first 

 place, was not the trysting-place the house of that 

 noted Exmoor sportsman and pony - breeder. Sir 

 Frederick Winn Knight ? Secondly, though the 

 said house lies low and warm in the pretty little 

 valley of Simonsbath, it also lies near the wildest 

 and "wettest" {i.e., boggiest) ground on the whole 

 of Exmoor. 



An Exmoor field presents little resemblance to the 

 smart scarlet-clad crowd which is to be seen at the 

 gatherings of a Midland pack. On this occasion 

 the field was a large one, for be it known the 

 autumn is the "season" on Exmoor, when scores of 

 sportsmen foregather for the chase of the wild red 

 deer. Among that field only one " pink " is to be 

 seen, however, — that worn by the whip. Even the 

 Master is in mufti. The Master in those days was 

 Mr Snow, the Squire of Oare. Though the best- 

 tempered man in the world, there is one sore point 

 on which he may be roused. Ask him if he is de- 

 scended from the "Farmer Snow" mentioned in 

 Lorna Doone, and you will be somewhat sharply 

 told that the Snows were Squires of Oare long 

 before the days of James II. Indeed, though 

 advancing years have forced him to resign the 



