Origin of the Vine Hunt. 37 



good deal of country north of the Kennet, from his own 

 house at Midgham, and must have possessed a narrow- 

 strip of great length, from Freefolk wood and Black- 

 wood on the south to Bucklebury, if not farther, on 

 the north. Mr. Poyntz was a gentleman of large 

 property, and of a very old family. He was a very 

 odd and whimsical character; but his eccentricities 

 seem to have been of a kind and easy nature. I 

 have been told that he was by no means a scrupulous 

 respecter of boundaries ; but that, as water will find 

 its way into every vacant place, so his hounds were 

 sure to appear wherever they were not carefully 

 stopped out; but I suspect that this laxity of pro- 

 ceeding was a characteristic of the times rather than 

 of the man. Mr. Poyntz was much with the Prince at 

 Kempshot, a society for which he was quite qualified 

 by his birth and connections ; but perhaps, in common 

 with some other gentlemen of the country, he did not 

 come out, quite uninjured, from that Royal lion's den. 

 For many seasons he used to bring his hounds to Over- 

 ton, and establish himself at an inn, now pulled down, 

 but which I remember by the name of the Poyntz's 

 Arms. Here he, who had consorted with princes, made 

 a crony of the landlord, old Paice ; with whom, when he 

 became too infirm for riding, he used to be driven in 

 a chaise along the line which the hounds were to 

 draw. I have heard from various quarters that the 

 whole thing was strangely conducted. The master 

 left the men, and the men left the hounds, very much 

 to themselves. The huntsman was seldom sober : by 

 the end of the day the hounds were usually scattered 

 along the whole line of country which they had drawn ; 

 and the men were often content to return home with 



