THE NEW FOREST 191 



nothing to jump, and the consequence is you have to 

 ride to the openings, or as they are provincially termed 

 shards, which are sometimes protected with hurdles. 

 There is a considerable portion of ploughed land, which 

 in wet weather is distressingly deep ; and in parts the 

 flints abound most excessively. The first impression 

 with respect to the coverts is erroneous ; they are many 

 of them very large, and the foxes usually run from one 

 to another; thus the hardest-riding men may be thrown 

 out, for it is impossible to follow hounds through them. 

 The only alternative therefore is to keep on the outside 

 of the smaller coverts, and follow the rides through the 

 larger ones, when, if the fox turns short from you, in 

 all probability you are thrown out. Many of the woods 

 are light in the bottom, and consequently hounds can 

 run nearly as fast through them as they can in the open. 

 Of brooks there are very few, and there is not much 

 meadow land; but to make amends for that there are 

 some fine open downs, over which, when the scent is 

 favourable, hounds can run at a most extraordinary 

 pace. 



Although the New Forest takes precedence in history 

 as the hunting domain of British kings, when William 

 the Conqueror is said to have extended its previous 

 boundaries and converted it into a royal chase, and 

 when Rufusi his son exercised despotic sway to render 

 his hunting grounds exclusive and complete for the 

 enjoyment of the diversion in which he lost his life, it 

 is comparatively of recent date that fox-hunting was 

 introduced, and not till after that sport had been 

 common in many other parts of England. 



The first pack of fox-hounds of which there is any 

 record in the New Forest were established at the close 

 of the last century by Mr. Compton, who was succeeded 

 by Mr. Gilbert. In 1808 Mr. John Warde, who had been 

 up to that period, hunting Northamptonshire, where he 

 sold his hounds with the exception of three couples of 

 bitches and their whelps to Lord Al thorp, engaged to 

 hunt the New Forest and purchased thirty couples of 



