Origin of the Vine Htmt. 35 



nington, with the Dean's woods, Evvhurst, Pamber, 

 Ufton Park, Sulhamstead and Pinge wood ; his 

 eastern boundary seems to have been formed by the 

 River Loddon. On the south of the turnpike he drew 

 the St. John's and Bull's bushes country; but he did not 

 cross the lanes which run from Dean Gate to Pop- 

 ham Lane into what may be called the Freefolk wood 

 country ; nor did he draw the Pole's wood country, 

 Wolverton, the Kingsclere woodlands, Aldermaston 

 or Wasing. Mr. Chute seems to have been most fre- 

 quently between Pamber and Sulhamstead, at which 

 latter place he had an intimate friend and valuable 

 supporter in the father of the present Mr. Thoyts. All 

 that district was then far more favourable for hounds 

 than it now is. It presented a wide extent of heath 

 and scattered furze, with wet boggy bottoms ; very 

 little interrupted by enclosures and quite free from the 

 fir plantations, which have now swallowed up so much 

 of it. It seems also to have been well stocked with 

 foxes, for I find that in February, 1798, the hounds 

 met twice in one week at Mortimer, and killed a fox 

 each day. 



But, though Mr. Chute's diary proves that he drew 

 the St. John's and Bull's bushes country, and though, 

 there is evidence* that Mr. Sclater Mathew drew them 

 before him, yet I ought to mention that the H.H. 

 conceived that they had a right to draw it also. I 

 think it must have been as late as the year 18 12 that 

 Mr. Villebois, having run a fox into that country, 

 drew those covers in his way home, for the purpose of 



* Mr. Sclater Mathevv's nephew, the present Mr. Sclater of 

 Hoddington House, remembers that his uncle used to speak of 

 St. John's wood as his favourite meet. 



D 2 



