216 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



speculation, if I may use such an expression, of falling 

 in with hounds to enjoy their company in rideable places 

 is perfectly consistent with this species of hunting. 

 Those who are acquainted with the country must possess 

 manifest advantages over strangers ; hi fact it is quite 

 evident that bogs, dingles, ravines, and other imprac- 

 ticable passes, by whatever provincial name or names 

 they may be distinguished, can only be avoided or 

 negotiated by persons who are ultimately acquainted 

 with their locality. 



Not being a professed stag-hunter myself I must 

 plead guilty to some diffidence in discussing the sub- 

 ject, but I must observe it is not a sport to my taste. 

 I may sum up my experience of it with a notice of the 

 very few occasions on which I have joined hi the 

 amusement. With the Aldenham buck-hounds, as they 

 were styled, which I have noticed as the connecting 

 link of what are now known as the Wheatland hounds, 

 I may have hunted about a dozen times, but that was 

 quite thirty years ago. Capital fun we had ; and, be it 

 remembered, it was always with outlying deer which 

 had escaped from the park and which were found in 

 coppices in a manner very similar to the practice still 

 continued in North Devon, except that the whole body 

 of the hounds were thrown into covert to draw for their 

 game. Twice I have met the Royal stag-hounds when 

 George IV. was King, and once during her present 

 Majesty's reign, in October, 1849, before they had com- 

 menced regular operations for the season. The deer 

 was enlarged at Southill and taken at Everley, after a 

 good hunting run. I was out twice with Mr. Bradley 's 

 hounds, and once with the Cheltenham stag-hounds 

 during the time they were under the management of 

 Mr. Barton. 



To those who are intent upon a gallop and to whom 

 time is of importance stag-hunting is particularly 

 adapted. The stag is seldom enlarged till twelve 

 o'clock, and a run of three hours must be sufficient for 

 the greatest glutton. Yet compared with fox-hunting 



