THE BERKSHIRE 



and the first Master, Clinton Gilmore, Esq., soon found it necessary to give 

 up the beagles and procure a draft of English foxhounds. Some of these 

 came from the well-known Meadow Brook pack on Long Island, while others 

 were recruited from the kennels of the Myopia Hunt at Hamilton. 



Mr. Gilmore did his best to induce the Field to give at least part of the 

 time to fox-hunting; but the frequent occurrence of wire, the bane of all 

 Masters in America, made it next to impossible, and the project was aban- 

 doned wath reluctance for the time being. 



In the spring of 1905, the Master's health forced him to resign, as he 

 found that the task was too great for him, and the present Master, David T. 

 Dana, Esq., was elected in his stead. 



During the summer, a draft of ten couples of hounds was imported from 

 England, coming partly from the Warwickshire and partly from the Pytch- 

 ley, and with these as a foundation, the huntsman, David Somerville, late of 

 the Grafton, has been able to breed a fast and fairly level pack. 



At present, there are fourteen couples of hounds in the kennels, and 

 the Hunt Staff consists of the Master, who hunts the hounds himself; 

 David Somerville, kennel huntsman, and two whippers-in, Wilde and 

 Peterson. 



The Master formerly took hounds out but two days a week on the drag; 

 but during the season of 1 907, fox-hunting was inaugurated, with fair suc- 

 cess. At the beginning, the main objection to this better form of sport was 

 as has been said, the prevalence of wire fencing throughout the country, but 

 a Wire Fund being established in 1 905, and during the last two seasons 

 being generously contributed to, all the fences in the hunting country are now 

 carefully panelled, owing to the universal co-operation of the farmers ; which 

 enables the Field to follow hounds wherever they go. In later years, per- 

 haps, the Berkshire M. F. H. will become as keen on fox-hunting as he now 

 is at the drag game, and of course this wall mean more hounds, of better 

 quality, and an eventual abandonment of drag-hunting, as has been the case 

 in another Massachusetts Hunt, the Middlesex. 



The country hunted consists, for the most part, of rolling pastures, inter- 

 spersed with the well-cultivated estates of the summer residents. The atti- 



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