INTRODUCTION xiii 



Peter's innate love of sport found vent at first in keeping 

 a pack of harriers, but these soon gave way to fox-hounds. 

 Thomas Fownes had given the neighbouring squires and 

 yeomen a taste for fox-hunting in its legitimate form, so 

 that when Beckford announced his intention of reviving 

 the glories of the Cranborn Chase hunt he was welcomed 

 on all sides. From what source or sources he procured 

 the foundation of his pack it is now impossible to ascertain, 

 but judging the man from his writing, one does not deem 

 it likely that he would spare either trouble or expense 

 in getting the best blood. We may also consider it an 

 established fact that by dint of careful breeding he brought 

 his pack to a very high state of perfection ; but what was 

 their ultimate fate I have not yet been able to trace. The 

 Cranbourn Chase country was not, even in Beckford's day, 

 an ideal spot for hunting, as he says himself; but being 

 then less cultivated and fenced it was probably much better 

 than as we know it now. They had, however, good sport 

 and killed their foxes, so that it may be presumed they 

 enjoyed themselves, which is after all the chief object for 

 which we hunt. The country which Beckford hunted was 

 probably that which now is known as the South Dorset. 

 We know he hunted beyond the Stour, as we have it on 

 his authority, the occasion (p. 245) being when he crossed 

 it in a flood and lost several hounds. To the north is 

 the Blackmore vale, which is nearly as good a country 

 as any in the shires, being a wide expanse of grass, though 

 it is greatly spoilt by the majority of fences being planted 

 on banks. From the little one can gather of Beckford's 

 doings as set down by himself, I imagine he was not a 

 very hard rider, and the big banks of the vale may have 

 had no great attraction for him. 



Cranbourn Chase was a royal forest in the time of King 

 John, and it then became the property of an Earl of 

 Salisbury, by whom it was sold to the Earl of Pembroke. 



