52 FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



for the rest of the day. I remember the first 

 time they were out, Lord Wolverton cried out to 

 a young sportsman who popped his whip, '' For 

 heaven's sake don't crack your whip or every one 

 of them will go straight home/' When down 

 there during that month I heard by chance that 

 Mr. Standish was giving up the Mastership of the 

 New Forest Foxhounds (which he had hunted for 

 five years), and had already agreed to sell his pack 

 to go to Ireland. In those days, ever ready to 

 take a fresh country, I jumped at the offer, and 

 suddenly found myself the M.F.PI. of the New 

 Forest. At that moment the first thing I had to 

 do was to look about for a pack of hounds; 

 horses are easy enough to get, but to find hounds 

 that are worth anything in a hurry is always a 

 difficult matter. Eventually I heard that the 

 Craven pack were for sale, and I went up to look 

 at them near Hungerford. There were about 

 seventy couple of all sorts and kinds, but owing 

 to some disagreement in the Hunt they had to be 

 sold immediately. I gave £500 for the whole 

 lot, and sent them down to the Lyndhurst kennels. 

 During that summer Mr. Henry Chaplin, who in 

 those days had no end of hounds at Blankney, 

 kindly gave me some eighteen couples, being 

 his old and young drafts, so I found myself with 

 at least eighty couples of hounds, very many more 



