56 FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



lost him after one hour and twenty minutes, most 

 of it at a tremendous pace, without any check 

 all the way/' 



' We were by now well into spring, that time 

 of year when all is smiling in the Forest. A bright 

 gaudy morning is not generally supposed to be 

 favourable for the chase, but in the New Forest 

 a spring day may be quite brilliant, and at the 

 same time as good, if not better, for hunting 

 than in wet weather ; moreover, when the 

 country is dry, the bogs which extend for miles 

 in some parts, begin to dry up, and on a warm 

 day it is there a fox loves to lay and sun himself. 

 For those who care to notice hounds drawing, it is 

 always an interesting sight to watch them on 

 these occasions. They sniff the air as they dash 

 in, and they soon know well enough if he is 

 there or not, though the secret may be kept 

 until the old fellow jumps off the dry tussock 

 where he has crouched until the very latest 

 moment; then, and not till then, comes that 

 crash and chorus which scatters all your cares 

 to the winds. 



In the April of that year, 1875, I invited the 

 Duke of Beaufort to bring some of his hounds 

 for a week of spring hunting, and about 

 the middle of the month he sent down about 

 twenty couples of doghounds to my kennels at 



