222 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



can afford ; as although the usual hour these hounds 

 meet is about half-past eleven, yet the Baron has 

 frequently a bye-day, especially at the end of the 

 season, when the meet is arranged so as to enable one 

 to return to London before one o'clock. 



" I remember eleven years since, when Captain 

 Conningham kept the Surrey stag-hounds, leaving 

 London at one o'clock in the afternoon on a hack to 

 meet these hounds at Walton Heath. This deer was 

 enlarged at three o'clock, and afforded a capital run of 

 two hours and a half; Captain Conningham, who was 

 in the 11th (Lord Cardigan's regiment), then quartered 

 at Hounslow, being obliged to appear on parade in the 

 morning, these hounds frequently met as late as one, 

 two, or three o'clock. The Dublin Garrison stag-hounds, 

 for the same reason, never meet earlier than one 

 o'clock. I have, however, never heard of any com- 

 plaint made by the gentlemen who hunt with that pack 

 of the day being too short to test the powers of 

 endurance of their gallant steeds. At the pace these 

 hounds go (be it remembered they are never stopped 

 when once laid on, as in this country), forty-five 

 minutes are enough to satisfy most men and horses also. 

 The officers are also in the habit of larking to the meet ; 

 on some occasions I have heard of them running a drag 

 about eight miles in forty-five minutes, over the strong 

 country in the neighbourhood of Dublin. 



" With the exception of Yorkshire and Devonshire, 

 there is no county in England where so many packs are 

 kennelled as in Hampshire, which is a singular 

 coincidence, inasmuch as its area is perhaps rather less 

 than the average, and it is not celebrated as a crack 

 country, there being but little grass, and the hill 

 country lieing very adverse to scent. There are, how- 

 ever, many staunch fox preserves, as well as good 

 sportsmen. At the present time there are nine packs 

 which hunt in this county; viz., Mr. Assheton Smith, 

 of Tidworth, who also hunts part of Wilts ; the Vine ; 

 the H.H. ; the Hambledon ; the Hursley ; the New 

 Forest ; Mr. Wheble's, and Mr. Garth's, between whom 

 the late Sir John Cope's country is divided ; they also 

 hunt part of Berks ; and the Isle of Wight fox-hounds. 

 Colonel George Wyndham used also to hunt part of 

 Hampshire, having one or two meets in Woolmer 

 Forest, although this country has not been hunted for 



