460 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



the sensible maxim of " making- the best of the inevitable," 

 and thanks to the goodness and cleverness of "Sailor" and 

 " Cigarette," who were " at home " in the country, I got on very 

 well, holding my own with the natives, and, with the exception 

 of one day, November 23rd, 1877, when "Sailor" was over 

 fresh, in a slow dragging run over a boggy, trappy country, I 

 escaped coming to grief. 



One of the great drawbacks has been the enormous 

 distances one has had to travel in order to get to hounds, and 

 the weary journeys homewards, with too frequently but little 

 sport to repay one for all the time, trouble and exertion, and 

 wear and tear of horseflesh, saddlery, and harness. At Thoby 

 Priory, placed between two packs of foxhounds, hunting four 

 days each per week, with the staghounds in one's own parish, 

 and within reach of the "drag," it was easier to get four days' 

 hunting per week than two days here (Hean Castle), and with 

 less distance and road work to encounter. Had one not had 

 the aid of two good and well-bred mares, " Hematite " and 

 "Winnie," with very light wagonette and sulky, I could not 

 have reached the distant meets, for our railway arrangements, 

 unfortunately, are anything but convenient. 



The South Pembroke Hounds, which are now my pack, as 

 hunting the locality, have had a wretchedly bad season, killing 

 literally only four foxes since regular hunting commenced. 

 The Pembrokeshire and Powell's (Carmarthenshire) Hounds 

 have both had good sport, killing respectively about thirty and 

 forty foxes, and on the five days I have been able to join them, 

 owino- to their oreat distance from Saundersfoot, I have seen 

 some good sport, but over a terribly rough country. 



(Of Mr. Vickerman's sport and experiences to 1887 in Wales 

 with the following packs, his diary fully deals : South Pem- 

 broke, Mr. Powell's, Laurenny Beagles, Pembrokeshire, 

 Scotchwell Harriers, Hon. Geoffrey Hill's Otter Hounds, 

 Newnham (Mr. R. Thomas) Harriers, Tivyside P^oxhounds, 

 Basset Harriers; the last entry in the journals he lent me being 

 as follows) :— Riding- home from hunting, the season before last 

 (1887-88), with Col.'^W. S. Maunsell, R.A. (my good neighbour 

 and tenant at St. Issel's House), he was recounting the different 

 packs he had hunted with, numbering nineteen in all. This 

 reminded me that I had never reckoned up my experiences 

 during my forty-five years and upwards, during which I had 

 kept a hunting diary (with the exception of the first three or 

 four years before I started a diary), and I referred to my record, 

 with the result that I found I had hunted with no less than fifty- 

 two different packs of all descriptions, made up as follows : — 



