FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 75 



to Greatbridge, and pulled him down in fine 

 style in the field adjoining Timsbury Mill. The 

 finish was seen by very few of the well-appointed 

 sportsmen of the morning, and the pace and 

 country were all too trying for any but the most 

 daring and the best mounted. In fact, beyond 

 the Master and the whips, the field was reduced 

 to a respectable unit^ in the person of Mr. S. 

 Carter of Totton, who claims the credit, and 

 deserves it, of having seen the whole run. As 

 for the rest, they had been shaken off for miles 

 before the finish, and so distanced must they 

 have been, that none of them came to the ' Whoo- 

 hoop ' even after the fox was broken up. 



'' In this run with the New Forest no hounds 

 could possibly have stuck more gamely to their 

 fox, and, considering the nature of the country, 

 very few could have gone faster. Though the 

 scent was admittedly of a burning sort, yet it 

 must be remembered that six or seven roads were 

 crossed, a species of hunting which always tries 

 hounds very much, and sometimes causes them 

 to turn up the game altogether, unless there are 

 a few staunch good-nosed ones among their 

 number. It may be easily understood from this 

 how it was that the field were so outrageously 

 * out of the hunt.' No doubt, however, many a 

 neighbouring Hampshire man ' thinks himself 

 accursed and holds his manhood cheap ' to reflect 

 that he was not there to see something, however 

 little, of this run from Embley, which unques- 

 tionably is likely to be talked about for many 



