HUNTING TEE WILD FALLOW DEE 11. 437 



others hunting them up in near proximity. We had left 

 Holmhill Inclosure, and now we were close to Lyndhurst Hill. 

 The deer lay down in water, jumped up before hounds, Avas 

 chased back into the woods she had left, and after one more 

 turn was pulled down — a doe. They had run about three 

 hours, and they had come some five or six miles — across the 

 map. I maintain we thus spent our Mayday cheerily — aye, 

 and profitably, for we were making the most of the fresh air 

 of Heaven and the picturesque beauty of Nature. For the 

 sport, and the studies it suggested, we have to thank Mr. Lovell, 

 its generous and skilful exponent. I will add of to-day only 

 that as the green foliage, that already is hiding all the brown 

 treetops of a week ago, assumes its place, the Forest Inclosures 

 become at once more difficult for hearing and for seeing, and 

 even for getting through. You can hear less of hounds, see 

 less of them, and can certainly take fewer liberties in plunging 

 after them. But those great good rides are an ever-failing help — 

 with a pilot's assistance. 



Early in the present century the New Forest would seem to 

 have been a great breeding ground for hounds — as it was, too, a 

 resort for the elite of many hunts when a May fox was to be 

 killed, and when the Prince of Wales would come to hold court 

 at the King's House, Lyndhurst. Mr. Nichol, I fancy, was 

 Master of the foxhounds in those days ; and the blood of his 

 Justice, largely adopted at Badminton, has been made famous 

 throughout England. The pack was sold in 1828 for a 

 thousand guineas. Justice is written of as a hound of immense 

 bone, and was described by his owner as being '' as big as a 

 deer." If there were good walks enough for one kennel in 

 those days, there are not enough for three in the present : 

 consequently the greater part of the yearly entry in each case 

 is now made up of drafts. Even then, it is said — and I cannot 

 help quoting the paragraph intact — " Mr. Nichol's hunting and 

 houndbreeding, well as he understood them, were conducted on 

 a very rough principle ; and digging a whole afternoon, fifteen 

 feet after a fox with his black and tan terriers, was the style of 



