SEASON OF 1916-1917 



CUBBING 



Fortunate, indeed, is the Master of Hounds who has a 

 good scenting cubbing season, plenty of cubs to rattle 

 about, and a keen young entry of hounds. 



Benjamin Chew, M.F.H., had all of these in the Autumn 

 of 1 91 6, and the prospects for a good season's sport were 

 never brighter. 



Scent kept top-hole until towards the middle of No- 

 vember when a dry spell put hounds to their noses for a 

 few weeks. 



My first morning with hounds this season was August 

 19th, in that lovely Cheshire country with W. Plunket 

 Stewart, M.F.H. As we finished our coffee at five o'clock, 

 the Cheshire English bitches and five and one half couples 

 of half-bred young entry appeared coming up that stately 

 avenue of old pines. We jogged around the road to Webb's 

 Wood, and hounds were no sooner in cover than we saw a 

 beautiful cub leaping over the tall grass and pointing to- 

 wards Chesterland. Then there was a burst of music that 

 told us everything was all right, and we sat on a little 

 knoll and watched hounds and cub make several big cir- 

 cles around us, finally marking him to ground in his home 

 covert, in fifty-five minutes. Even the most fastidious 

 could not have asked for a more satisfactory opening of a 

 cubbing season; and as we rode back to kennels, the Master 

 on " Moonshine," Nelson Duckley on " Mirana," " Buzzy " 

 Smith on " Sir Astro," Mr. Kerr on a big chestnut thorough- 

 bred, and .your humble servant on John Fell's " Sandy 



