FOX-HUNTING EARLY :^AND LATE. 337 



an old dog-fox, without any risk of leaving an interest- 

 ing family motherless. 



Some years ago it was my fate to be an eye- 

 witness of some of these early and late days with the 

 Exmoor and Dartmoor Foxhounds, and both, strange 

 to say, in the same season, and I propose to describe 

 one day of each kind, so as to give my readers an idea 

 of how the English national sport is carried on in these 

 wild and unpopulated districts. 



The meet fixed for October I5th, 18 , was in many 

 respects a typical Exmoor one. In the first place, 

 was not the trysting-place the house of that noted 

 Exmoor sportsman and pony-breeder, Sir Frederick 

 Winn Knight ? Secondly, though the said house lies 

 low and warm in the pretty little valley of Simonsbath, 

 it also lies near the wildest and " wettest " (i.e. 

 boggiest) ground on the whole of Exmoor. 



An Exmoor field presents little resemblance to the 

 smart scarlet- clad crowd which is to be seen at the 

 gatherings of a Midland pack. On this occasion the 

 field was a large one, for be it known the autumn is the 

 " season " on Exmoor, when scores of sportsmen fore- 

 gather for the chase of the wild red deer. Among 

 that field only one " pink " is to be seen, however 

 that worn by the whip. Even the Master is in mufti. 

 The Master in those days was Mr. Snow, the Squire 

 of Oare. Though the best-tempered man in the 

 world, there is one sore point on which he may be 

 roused. Ask him if he descended from the " Farmer 

 Snow " mentioned in " Lorna Doone," and you will be 

 somewhat sharply told that the Snows were Squires of 



