THE SMITHTOWN 



these hounds were found to be good after foxes when once they were 

 started, they were so unmanageable that a change was decided upon. For 

 this reason Mr. Clarence Robbins, who had been elected to the Mastership 

 on the resignation of Mr. Smith at the close of the season of 1 907, brought 

 over ten couples of hounds from England, and intends in time to breed from 

 these a good-sized pack of his own. A few couples of American hounds 

 are still kept, as there are some members of the Hunt who are under the 

 impression that they are better for fox-hunting than their imported cousins. 



The country over which the Smithtown rides is typical of Long Island ; 

 rolling, and in places quite hilly, the high land is mostly covered with scrub 

 oaks, dwarf pines and thick underbrush, and these coverts, which are very 

 large in extent, are well supplied wath foxes. In between the hills are a 

 great many grass fields, the enclosures being fair sized, and bounded with 

 clean post-and-rails, affording the best of galloping and jumping. Unluckily 

 these large areas of scrub woodland in which the foxes lie are too great in 

 extent and too unrideable in character to give the Field a chance to follow 

 hounds and it is only for this reason that the members of the Hunt are in- 

 clined to follow the drag at all. Blank days are almost unknown, and "the 

 glorious uncertainty of fox-hunting " with the Smithtown men is only whether 

 the fox will take to the open or cling to the large, strong coverts. 



Most of the Field ride clean-bred or at least seven-eighths-bred horses, 

 but the Master writes us that any fairly well-bred one which can jump is 

 really perfectly suited to the country. 



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