I04 Hark Away, 



bygone times. Not so in Devon : for there I fully 

 realised the words of Felicia Hemans: — 



" The stately homes of England, 

 How beautiful they stand, 

 Amidst the tall, ancestral trees, 

 O'er all the pleasant land," 



when I was asked to accompany the Squire and 

 Mrs. Bellew to Holcombe Court, to be present at the 

 breakfast on the opening day of the Tiverton Fox- 

 hounds — a drive through a beautiful line of country, 

 passing through Bampton, celebrated for its fair, at 

 which the Exmoor ponies are sold in vast numbers, 

 brought us to Holcombe Court, the residence of Mr. 

 Rayer, the Master of the Tiverton Hounds. 



This beautiful place has a history which, as yet, I 

 have not had time to master. That it is of ancient date 

 may be judged by the fact of the library having been 

 the room in which King John was entertained some 

 seven hundred years since. The massive carved oak 

 doors and ceiling at once proclaimed its antiquity. 

 An elegant breakfast was laid in the panelled dining- 

 room, the table tastefully ornamented with lovely 

 flowers and rare ferns, around which the guests in 

 hunting costume were seated. The men in scarlet 

 coats and ladies in habits made an exceedingly 

 pleasant picture. On the lawn the hounds, which, 

 by the way, are hunted by Mr. Collier, whose pack 

 of otter hounds is one of the celebrities of the county, 

 were duly paraded ; groups of hunters in clothing, 

 farmers on sturdy-looking nags, ladies' horses, with 

 their saddles carefully covered up, were to be seen ; 

 and the morning being fair, it was a more than 



