HUNTING FROM LONDON 221 



horse on the line, and return after hunting with a day- 

 ticket, or send him the day before. 



"The North-western line I should say decidedly 

 affords the greatest advantages'; as on that line a man 

 may reach Lord Dacre's hounds in the neighbourhood 

 of Watford, Boxmoor, or Berkhamptead at the cost, 

 self and horse, of from 15s. to l 4s. ; or Lord 

 Lonsdale's fox-hounds, his lordship's harriers, and 

 Baron Rothschild's stag-hounds, from Tring or 

 Leighton Buzzard, at from 30s. to 35s. ; from Leighton 

 Buzzard or Bletchley, Mr. Selby Lownde's hounds 

 could have been reached last year (since which this 

 country has been taken by Lord Southampton and 

 added to his own). From Wolverton, and then ex- 

 tending beyond the circuit of fifty miles, Blis worth and 

 Weedon take you within reach of Lord Southampton's 

 original country and the Pytchley; from Rugby, other 

 parts of the Pytchley, the Atherstone and Warwick- 

 shire; from Aylesbury (a branch of the North-western 

 line) may be reached Baron Rothschild's stag-hounds 

 and Mr. Drake's; from Winslow and Buckingham on 

 the Bletchley and Oxford line, Lord Southampton's 

 and Mr. Drake's; on the Bletchley and Bedford line 

 the Oakley may be reached. 



" I have frequently hunted from London with the 

 Pytchley, Warwickshire, Atherstone, and Quorn 

 hounds, leaving Euston Square by the half-past six train 

 in the morning, and returning the same evening, and 

 have occasionally gone down by the nine o'clock 

 express with Sir R. Sutton, when the hounds have met 

 at twelve o'clock, in order to enable him to travel by 

 this train; this, however, is an exceptional case. I have 

 met Baron Rothschild's hounds at seven o'clock in the 

 morning, in the neighbourhood of the kennels at 

 Mentmore, (about three miles from the Leighton 

 station), and having had a very good run of one hour 

 and a half over the finest grass country in England, 

 taking the deer about four miles beyond Aylesbury, 

 have been back in London about half-past eleven in 

 the morning ; on the other hand, I have left London as 

 late as twelve o'clock to meet these hounds in the Vale 

 of Aylesbury, and seen a run of two hours, returning 

 to London in time for a late dinner. This proves that 

 the Vale of Aylesbury affords facilities for hunting to 

 a man whose time is valuable that no other country 



