24 Recollectio7is of the Vi7ie Hunt. 



slip through a country without attracting notice of 

 eye or ear. It is more remarkable that the hounds 

 never checked, but hung on the scent throughout; but 

 it is to be observed that they had the advantage of 

 running from a worse into a better scenting country, 

 so that the scent probably increased in proportion as 

 the hounds declined in strength. After giving himself, 

 his horse, and his little pack food and rest at Aires- 

 ford, Mr. Terry reached the kennel at Heriard between 

 ten and eleven o'clock ; but it must have been near 

 midnight before he regained his own home near Tun- 

 worth. Mr. Terry added that these seven hounds 

 ever afterwards showed an attachment to him, and 

 would leave the pack and come round his horse 

 whenever he hunted with them. 



A little before I began to hunt, a man named 

 Cowley had been Mr. Chute's huntsman. I was told 

 that he was a very good one; and that, as George 

 Hickson, who was whipper-in to him, was excellent 

 in that office, the pack had been very successful during 

 this period. A curious circumstance took place while 

 Cowley was huntsman. 



There was a gentleman well known in the hunt who 

 w^as a very good sportsman, but who, having been 

 bred a harehunter, entertained some notions which 

 sounded heretical in the ears of orthodox foxhunters. 

 Amongst others, he held that horseflesh was unne- 

 cessary and injurious to foxhounds ; that they would 

 be quite up to their work, and undoubtedly have 

 tenderer noses if they were fed only on oatmeal. Mr. 

 Chute's brother partly believed this, and between 

 them they persuaded the Squire to give the thing a 

 trial. In order to put the theory to the severest test, 



