244 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



was good till Christmas, at which time we had 'frost 

 and snow with variable temperature till March, when 

 it was dry and dusty, and scent very changeable. My 

 memorandums from that date till 1840 being deficient, 

 I cannot fill up the interval from memory, but I find 

 that season was generally fair, and more than an 

 average of sport resulted till after Christmas, when the 

 weather became very changeable, and sport followed 

 suit. The following year was somewhat similar. 

 The year 1843 was ushered in with a remarkably 

 fine warm and bright day, and the weather subsequently 

 became very uncertain, sometimes frosty, at others warm, 

 and I shall never forget the heat for the time of year 

 on the 20th March, when Lord Gifford's hounds found 

 a fox in Hayley Wood and killed him in Oakley Wood, 

 with a very bad scent ; it was the heat that enabled the 

 hounds to taste their fox. The scent was very uncertain 

 during this spring. Subsequent seasons do not afford 

 particular instances till that of 1845-46, which may be 

 characterised as a dry one. There was very little frost ; 

 and hounds in general had more than an average of 

 runs. The year 1849-50 was a bad season generally; 

 there was a considerable quantity of frost. 



It is a general opinion if the scent has not been good 

 and a frost commences that it will improve afterwards ; 

 but I do not find that the opinion is borne out by facts. 

 The year following was exceedingly good, while that of 

 1851-2, although the weather was very open and 'ap- 

 parently favourable for hunting, was decidedly the 

 worst-scenting season I can bear in remembrance 

 a complaint made by almost every master of hounds in 

 the kingdom. To make amends for that, the last 

 winter was perhaps the best ever known. It is fairly 

 entitled to the superlative degree for its excellence as 

 the preceding one was for its deficiency. Rain fell 

 early in October and continued to inundate the country 

 to an unprecedented degree. 



The opinion that an excessive quantity of wet is un- 

 favourable to scent was completely confuted by the 



