150 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



II. THE NEW FOREST DEERHOUNDS, 



Ever since I had had a season on Exmoor I had 

 conceived a strong desire to give the New Forest 

 pack a turn, but it was not till a couple of years 

 later that I was able to gratify this, and sending three 

 horses down to Lyndhurst, I followed them myself a 

 day or two after the New Year. 



I am not able to give so many particulars as to 

 the history of this pack as I did of the Devon and 

 Somerset, but I believe that they have none, and 

 were simply established by the present Master, Mr. 

 Lovell,* who has had them for many years The 

 nominal huntsman, Allen, is little more than a 

 whipper-in to the Master, to whose knowledge of the 

 woodland deer and woodcraft the sport is principally due. 



The hounds, like the Devon and Somerset, are 

 a dog pack, and are not bred by the Master. They 

 are recruited every year from the unentered draft of 

 the Bramham Moor Foxhounds, and are of ordinary 

 foxhound size. During the tufting the hounds are 

 not shut up owing to the paucity of buildings in the 

 Forest, but are coupled and held by men in the same 

 way that the relais in French stag-hunting are. 



The seasons correspond to those on Exmoor, and 

 are buck - hunting in autumn and doe - hunting in 

 winter. In addition to this they have a second season 

 for hunting the male deer, about Easter, when the 

 bucks have regained their condition after the rutting 

 season, and before they have shed their horns. 



* Since retired. 



