Hunting in the last Cent7iry. 



the hare to my father, explained to him, in the best 

 English that he could command, how he had saved the 

 game from the jaws of the dogs, and how delighted 

 he was to have this opportunity of restoring it to 

 Monsieur ; but as my father, far from having killed, 

 had not even found a hare that morning, the truth 

 necessarily came out to the great discomfiture of the 

 prince. I do not recollect whether the hounds, which 

 he had thus defrauded of their blood, were Mr. Terry's 

 or Mr. Digweed's, nor am I able to say who finally 

 ate the hare. 



It is also certain that, quite in the beginning of this 

 century, at least* four packs of foxhounds were draw- 

 ing covers within the limits which now form the H. H. 

 and the Vine countries, the former country being 

 then divided between the H. H. and Mr. Russell, the 

 successor of Lord Stawell, and the latter between 

 Mr. Chute and Mr. Poyntz ; while a few years earlier 

 a pack of foxhounds had been kept by Mr. Smith at 

 Cruxeaston. I can therefore well believe that when 

 the old farmer was young there might have been 

 many packs of foxhounds, as well as of harriers, which 

 would be continually running into each other's coun- 

 tries, and in some cases drawing the same cover, 

 a practice of which a remnant still exists in the 



* I say ' at least four,' because Mr. Powlett also at one time 

 hunted the Freefolk wood country, in which he is reported to 

 have had a remarkable continuance of good sport ; but I have 

 never been able to ascertain whether this was while he was 

 master of the H. H., or when he was keeping a separate pack at 

 Lainston House. If the latter were the case, then there was a 

 third pack of foxhounds within the present limits of the Vine 

 Hunt, for it is certain that at the same time Mr. Poyntz had 

 possession of the Aldermaston and Kingsclere woodlands. 



