A SCURRY WITH THE VINE 71 



striking events connected with the noble science : one 

 bearing on the practice which I am now advocating; 

 the other, on what hounds can do if not pressed upon 

 by horsemen or interfered with by a huntsman. 



On the 15th of February 1851 the Vine hounds met 

 at Monk's Sherborne and drew Mr. Helton's coverts, 

 the resort of the cubs which had been removed from 

 the earth in question. They very quickly found, and 

 with a good scent went away with little or no cry. It 

 was a foggy morning, and none of the field was aware 

 for some little time that they had found, much less that 

 they had gone away; missing the hounds, however, it 

 was soon discovered they had slipped off silently by 

 themselves, pointing for Ramsdell, leaving that hamlet 

 on the right, to Skyres 1 , when they ran in the direction 

 of Ewhurst Park, but skirting the coverts, went straight 

 through the Deans Wood, and on gaining the open the 

 hounds ran into and killed their fox. The run occupied 

 thirty-five minutes, but not one of the field saw any- 

 thing of the hounds till they had passed Ramsdell, and 

 were never able to get near them till they reached the 

 Deans Wood, immediately after which he was killed. 

 This was only a young fox of the preceding season, he 

 was one of those which had been disturbed from the 

 earths, and I had often seen him. He was a good, wild 

 specimen of the vulpine fraternity; there was no dis- 

 position in him to run the chain of woodlands which 

 prevail in the neighbourhood, the usual propensity of 

 the foxes generally which are bred there. The moment 

 he was found he faced the open, skirted the Ewhurst 

 coverts, and ran through Deans Wood, more probably 

 because it happened to be in his line than from any 

 knowledge of its locality, for it contains earths which 

 he never tried. 



Although there are some impediments to first-rate 

 sport in the Vine country, in consequence of the inter- 

 minable woodlands and hedgerows in one part and the 

 bad-scenting properties of the other, it abounds in 

 wild, stout-running foxes, which may be attributed in 



