Huntmg in Devoii and Some7^set. 107 



brown heather, straight down a tremendously steep 

 hill, at the bottom of which flows the Barle ; then, 

 crossing that swift-flowing stream, the Squire stop- 

 ping to take up Spot, who was nothing loth to ride 

 on the pommel of his master's saddle, we mounted 

 the steep hill side, and drew for a fox. As we rode 

 along we startled a quantity of black game, many 

 partridges, and sundry snipes. Presently a hound 

 speaks, and a fox is found in a thick gorse cover. 

 There is scarcely a particle of scent, and they have 

 hard work to make him go away. But the Squire 

 cheers and encourages them, and the adjacent hills 

 re-echo the sound of his cheery cry and the mellow 

 tone of his horn, and I say to myself this is true 

 hunting. Sport in every sense of the word it is to 

 see hounds working so steadily. At length the fox 

 is forced to fly, they are too close to his brush for his 

 comfort, and " Gone away, gone away, gone away ! " 

 echoes and re-echoes through the woods. FoUoTvang 

 the Squire we come to a fence, which I should not 

 have thought any horse would have faced. " Jump 

 off, and get over as quick as you can," said the 

 Master, and I did so in a manner by no means grace- 

 ful, to say the least, and turning the clever animals 

 loose, they jumped on the bank, forced their Avay 

 through the interlacing branches, and landed safely 

 alongside of me. Up and away we go again, and we 

 rattle that fox through the covers, up the hills, 

 through the combes and over the heather until we 

 lose him ; and then we return to Rhyll, after a most 

 delightful day's sport. 



I was much struck with the Dulverton Foxhounds, 

 and the blooming condition they are in ; but as the 



