FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 85 



Savernake Forest, as the Lord Ailesbury of that 

 day (this was the 3rd Marquis of Ailesbury) 

 allowed me to take the hounds and horses to the 

 Tottenham kennels at Savernake. Here they 

 stayed for two or three weeks in the autumn, 

 and we always found plenty of cubs to hunt. 



The Saturday fixtures were generally Doles 

 Wood or Faccombe Wood, an enormous tract of 

 woodland on the east side of the country, sur- 

 rounded by hills with arable land and endless 

 flints ; the consequence was that on those days 

 the hounds often had their feet cut, which caused 

 a deal of trouble in the kennel. 



No one could say that the Tedworth was 

 a really good fox-hunting country, or indeed a 

 good scenting country, but I think it was one 

 of the best for foxes that I have ever known. 

 You could find them everywhere, and the farmers 

 were one and all fox-hunters, and with them 

 Jack Fricker was quite an idol for thirty or forty 

 years — a good servant and a very honest man, 

 patient and persevering in the field ; but I always 

 thought he might have made a better huntsman 

 if he had been away a little into other countries 

 early in life, instead of passing the whole of his 

 career at Tedworth. There were, nevertheless, 

 one or two points in which he was quite un- 

 equalled ; he could make his hounds at any 



