80 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



as one hundred couples in the field. Evidently he did 

 not value the advice given by Somerville, who says, 



" Here must th* instructive Muse (but with respect) 

 Censure that numerous pack, that crowd of state, 

 With which the vain profusion of the great 

 Covers the lawn, and shakes the trembling copse. 

 Pompous encumbrance ! a map:nificence 

 Useless, vexatious ! For the wily fox. 

 Safe in th' increasing number of his foes, 

 Kens well the great advantage; slinks behind. 

 And slyly creeps thro' the same beaten track, 

 And hunts them step by step; then views, escap'd. 

 With inward ecstasy, the panting throng 

 In their own footsteps puzzled, foil'd and lost." 



The extraordinary command, or rather subjection, 

 under which Mr. Meynell's hounds were disciplined, 

 will be gleaned from an anecdote related of them by 

 Colonel Cook. In his Observations on Hunting he 

 mentions " the circumstance of Mr. Meynell's hounds 

 waiting in the same field, while a few couples selected 

 from the pack were running hard in an adjoining gorse, 

 nor did they attempt to break from the whipper-in 

 until cheered to the cry by Jack Raven.'* The plan 

 of selecting a few couples of hounds to draw the gorse 

 was, no doubt, adopted in order to avoid the danger 

 of chopping the fox in covert, an event very likely to 

 happen with such a numerous phalanx as one hundred 

 couples of hounds. I also remember having heard Mr. 

 Lockley mention similar instances of the subjection 

 under which they were managed, but he thoroughly 

 exonerated both the master and the huntsman from 

 any acts of severity. The steadiness and docility 

 of the hounds were manifested on all occasions. They 

 hunted three days in the week, and the average number 

 of foxes which they killed throughout a season was 

 about thirty-six brace ; but then it must be remembered 

 the country was of far greater extent than at the 

 present time, as it then included the Donnington. 



Since Sir Richard Sutton has hunted the Quom 



