398 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



the concurrent testimony of hunting acquaintances from various 

 quarters, all prove that Sir Richard was not singular in this 

 respect, for the want of sport has been universal. 



Nor could it be otherwise. The summer was the Exhibi- 

 tion Summer, long, hot and dry, the autumn dry also. 

 November, instead of being dry and sloppy, was like a bitter 

 March, dry, hard and severe frosts, and it was the 20th of 

 December before we had any rain to moisten and soften the 

 ground. January and the early part of February, were wet, 

 with boisterous gales, and sport was generally fair during this 

 interval, but from the middle of February to the middle of 

 April (the period ot my now writing), we have not had a drop 

 of rain except on Monday night, March 29th. The wind 

 during these two months has been north-east, the days 

 generally clear and sunny, and the nights most frequently 

 sharp frosts, until the country is not simply dry but pulverised. 



During such a season and in so bad a country for scent as 

 well as every other hunting requisite as Surrey, it has been a 

 piece of good fortune to have the opportunity of hunting with 

 staghounds, as well kept and managed as the Surrey stag- 

 hounds, by their young easy-tempered master, Arthur Heath- 

 cote. With them we have had many a gallop which we should 

 never have witnessed with foxhounds, and in vale countries 

 far belter (cramped though they be) than the latter can ever 

 venture into, being generally condemned to pursue their game 

 where it is chiefly to be found amid the hills and flints. 



Like many and indeed most things which we undertake 

 involuntarily and contrary to inclination, my first season of 

 Surrey hunting has not proved so much of a blank and dis- 

 appointment as I had feared and anticipated. Thanks to the 

 staghounds we have chiefly been in the Vale " below hill " 

 where there is less of hill, very little if any flint, and where 

 enclosures are small and fences generally stiff and cramped. 

 Hence with a tolerable deer and fair scent, there has generally 

 been plenty to do, and though it has not certainly been at all 

 equal to the pleasure of sailing over the broad expanse of 

 " The Roothings," with their flying fences and independence 

 of action and extent of vision, added to the oreat negative 

 advantage of absence of roads, lanes, rivers, canals, and rail- 

 ways, which mar so materially many a good run in Surrey and 

 other counties, still there has been abundance of work and 

 impediments to try both horse and rider, and perhaps to 

 improve the cleverness and skill of both by the extreme 

 dissimilarity and variety of fences, and the hilly cramped 



