FOX-HUNTING RFXOLLECTIONS 53 



than I wanted. However, in the course of the 

 summer I reduced them to about fifty couples ; 

 then I engaged Jack Goddard (a son of the old 

 Jack Goddard) as my Kennel Huntsman and 

 first whip, and a young fellow called Jim 

 Reynolds from the North Hereford as second 

 whip. I had decided to hunt the hounds myself ; 

 my whips turned out all right, and we got on well 

 together. 



That autumn of 1874 we began cub-hunting 

 on the nth August, but many of the mornings 

 were terribly hot, and as an alternative I began 

 to try afternoon cub-hunting, meeting at about 

 2.30 or 3, and generally going on as long as 

 the daylight lasted. The experiment answered 

 very well ; it was seldom so hot at three or four in 

 the afternoon as it was at seven or eight in the 

 morning, besides which it got cooler every hour, 

 and altogether the plan was a success in the 

 Forest ; perhaps it might not answer quite so 

 well in other countries. Throughout the season 

 of 1874 and 1875 we hunted ninety-six days, 

 killed thirty-eight foxes, and were stopped twelve 

 days by frost ; the total of foxes does not sound 

 very good, but it must be remembered that 

 the New Forest is by far the most difiicult 

 of all countries for catching foxes. In the 

 first place it is almost impossible to stop it pro- 



