40 Recollections of the Vine Hunt. 



Earl of Portsmouth kept the Vine hounds, he held 

 also some parts of the Craven country; but only 

 by a temporary arrangement, and not so as to 

 amalgamate the two countries together. Some of 

 the oldest portions of the Vine country have, of late 

 years, been occupied, by permission, by the South 

 Berks. Blackwood has always been neutral between 

 the Vine and the H.H. The triangle formed by 

 Knightsbridge, Kingsclere, and Dairy House, in- 

 cluding Frow Park, has always been neutral between 

 the Vine and the Craven ; but with these exceptions, 

 the Vine country has been held unchanged, in undis- 

 puted possession for more than fifty years. I have, 

 indeed, heard of other masters of foxhounds of a still 

 earlier date, occupying the same countries. Of Lord 

 Craven, Lord Stawell, and Mr. Smith of Cruxeaston, 

 I have already made mention. I believe, though I 

 am not certain, that previous to the days of Mr. 

 Sclater Mathew, a predecessor of his, Mr. Limbrey, 

 kept foxhounds at Tangier, in the old days, when it 

 was a deer park : I have also heard my father speak 

 of a Mr. Evelyn, a descendant of the celebrated John 

 Evelyn, a very polished and popular gentleman, who 

 kept hounds somewhere in that neighbourhood. But 

 all these are like shadowy objects looming indistinctly 

 through a fog, of which I am unable to fix the out- 

 lines. I have told all that I can hope to establish as 

 authentic history ; and I shall be well content if I have 

 been able to show, on good evidence, — 



1st. The origin of the Vine hounds. 

 2nd. The countries occupied by them at different 

 times. 



