To Mr. Lindley Bott, 



First Whipper-in to the 

 Essex Otterhounds. 



''Where a winding stream amid flowering mead 

 Perpetual glides along and undermines 

 The cavern's bank by tenacious roots 

 Of hoary willows, arch'd {find) his gloomy retreat/* 



Somervile. 



XX 



OTTER HUNTING 



THE OTTER — NATURE OF THE GAME — THE OTTERHOUND — HIS 

 GREAT COURAGE AND ENDURANCE. 



"C^ OX hunting men who have never hunted with otterhounds 

 ■*■ generally look on the sport as something suitable only 

 for school boys and girls to play at, during the summer season, 

 when foxes are unwarrantable. They think, perhaps, it may 

 do well enough as easy lessons for children in their first essay 

 towards the science of fox hunting, or for the over zealous 

 sporting blood of a Briton, who cannot afford to supply him- 

 self with a mount. As to comparing the game with riding to 

 hounds after the fox, the wild red deer, or even a drag, most 

 hunting men would probably "cross themselves and pray to be 

 forgiven for harbouring such blasphemous thoughts." The 

 writer's preconceived ideas of the game were after the pre- 

 vailing notion, but he wants to say right here that he has been 

 converted. He believes it is only fair to say that for anyone 

 who loves to see hounds work and whose soul is tuned to hound 



