CHAPTER XXIX. 



FOX-HUNTING EARLY AND LATE. 



IN no part of England, with the exception perhaps of 

 the New Forest, is the " sport of kings, the image of 

 war " * carried on so early and so late as on those 

 great moorlands which take their names from the two 

 rivers to which they give birth the Exe and the 

 Dart. 



As is well known, regular fox-hunting as opposed 

 to cub-hunting begins generally throughout England 

 at the beginning of November, and dies a natural 

 death at a period varying according to the forwardness 

 of the season between the third week in March and 

 the second in April. But on Exmoor and Dartmoor 

 things are different. The question of crops affects the 

 matter not at all, and even the delicate subject of 

 lambing need only enter slightly into the Master's 

 calculations. Besides, as these hounds find their 

 fox as often as not on the open moor, it is an easy 

 matter to see whether the object of chase is a desirable 

 one or not. In other words, the hounds can be easily 

 stopped off a gravid vixen or let go if they happen on 



* " Handley Cross "passim. 



