428 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE 



park and lodge said to have been set apart by Charles I. for the 

 due preservation of a herd of red deer sent him from abroad. 

 But we, as a multitude, are not monarchical, nowadays, with 

 regard to forests — let our individual and broader sympathies be 

 what they may. Well, they gave Tertius a dressing for twenty 

 very sharp minutes, after which he went to ground — no earths 

 stopped after March, and very rightly. Quartus gave a more 

 elaborate hunt. Gritnam Wood, I learn, was the name of his 

 holding. He looked outside and they ran him ; came back and 

 they ran him better — over Lyndhurst Hill, and by Emery 

 Down, past Northerwood House on to clean heather and 

 common, to the Manor House (the seat of Mr. Compton, one of 

 the mainstays of the Forest) — rhododendron bushes, fox headed 

 from further inquiry into Lyndhurst precincts, some clever hunt- 

 ing to recover line, and reynard won the parti. An hour and a 

 half of useful hunting — very rough riding — trees and broken 

 country — stables and gruel close at hand. 



On Wednesday Mr. Mills's foxhounds were at Ocknell Bridge 

 — to reach which from Lyndhurst one followed for some distance 

 a hogsback commanding a glorious view of all the northern 

 forest. A sea of trees stretched far away to the right ; rolling 

 moorland, broken here and there by patches of dense inclosure, 

 carried the eye forward and leftward as far as it would reach. 

 A strong cool breeze drove across the hill — giving one the idea 

 that in midwinter this must indeed be a bleak region. Already 

 the roads were drying and dust occasionally flying ; but scent 

 was no less keen, and hounds ran as fast as yesterday. 

 Albrighton and Belvoir blood, I learn, form the bulk of Mr. 

 Mills's pack, and very sharp, active little hounds they are. 

 They were first taken for a cruise over the open moor, Sears 

 moving quietly through gorse and heather, while the two whips 

 were thrown wide down wind as scouts. A fox not being forth- 

 coming, the Inclosure of Holly Hatch was about to be entered ; 

 when, ere reaching it, we suddenly found ourselves embarked in 

 a rush through trees and bushes — the horn twanging cheerily, 

 hounds throwing their tongues noisily in the jungle ahead, and 



