AUTHOR'S PREFACE xxi 



information as I could command, with reference 

 to this sport, from the earHest period at which 

 there is any record of a pack of hounds havino- 

 been kept in the country, down to the present 

 time, and of giving- the result of my researches to 

 the public. A few years ago, accident threw in 

 my way a manuscript of the late Mr. Boyce of 

 Withypoole, in which he recorded, faithfully as I 

 believe, most of the runs and peculiar incidents 

 and occurrences connected with the chase between 

 the years 1776 and 18 16. I have myself hunted 

 with the staghounds for forty-six years, and have 

 regularly noted the chases which have occurred 

 from 1816 down to the present time. From these 

 sources I have, in the Appendix to this little work, 

 given short accounts of several runs, in many of 

 which sportsmen now alive have participated and 

 borne a prominent part. I am aware that these 

 descriptions will be of interest mainly to the local 

 sportsmen, and to those, who, knowing the points 

 of the country, can, by the aid of their imagina- 

 tion, complete the picture of which I have fur- 

 nished the sketch : to such I venture to think 

 the Appendix will be considered as not the least 

 interesting part of the work. 



Time was when the deer roamed wild over the 



