140 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



open heaths, which afford good galloping. With the 

 exception of one or two adjoining and wooded estates, 

 the deer-hunting country is all the property of the 

 Crown. 



During this my first season with the pack I 

 witnessed some doe -hunting of the ordinary sort, 

 the best run I saw being one of two hours and 

 fifty minutes. 



Mr Lovell resigned the Mastership in 1893, and 

 was followed by four Masters in succession, their 

 total reigns extending over fifteen years. It was 

 during the period of the fourth of these that I was 

 able to have another season with these hounds. I 

 may add that his resignation occurred in the fiftieth 

 year of the Hunt, and that since then Mr George 

 Thursby has been at the head of affairs. 



My second season was a complete one, beginning 

 in August and ending in May. I had altogether 

 seventy - seven days hunting, and saw sixty deer 

 killed. The August buck - hunting is not of great 

 interest, particularly to the riding man, but cannot 

 be altogether passed over in silence. 



Let me describe an actual day's sport. The meet 

 is in the lower country, some five miles from the 

 kennels, and on the Bournemouth road. The Forest 

 is in its full beauty in August. Only where they 

 happen to grow next the blue -green firs can one 

 notice that there is already a shade of brown in the 

 foliage of the oaks. The heather is in full bloom, and 

 all open spaces that are not deep in green bracken 

 are purple with the flowers of both varieties. Through 

 these, and through the woodlands, winds the yellow 

 road, and hardly have we cleared the outlying houses 

 of the Forest capital, Lyndhurst, than we are aware 



