FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 8i 



There was one bit of blue in the horizon ; 

 this was the immense expanse of SaHsbury 

 Plain, with its wide stretch of turf, which, with 

 the bit of vale round Southgrove, formed the 

 best part of the country, dotted with patches 

 of gorse which mostly held a fox or two. 



The Squire began by hunting four days a week 

 himself in the best parts, and at the same time 

 he sent his huntsman with another pack every 

 Wednesday into Wherwell Wood, and every 

 Saturday to some of the other great woodlands. 

 At first Dick Burton was his huntsman, and 

 after that old George Carter, who came to Ted- 

 worth in 1842 with a pack of hounds which Mr. 

 Assheton Smith bought from the Duke of Grafton 

 of that day. The soil on the downs was of cold 

 and chalky nature, and perhaps it is safe to say 

 of the Tedworth that you can either run fast 

 over it or cannot run at all. Close at your fox 

 on a favourable day you may perhaps race him 

 from find to finish, and in a spin over the downs 

 it often happens that you can see him all the 

 way as he rises hill after hill of the undulating 

 sheep-walks until the hounds get hold of him, 

 but this is not every day. When the land is 

 cold and hard and there is no scent upon the 

 downs, then it is difficult to get a gallop. A 

 good general idea of the open Tedworth Hills 



