CLOUTSHAM. 329 



In 1325 John of Cloutsham held a quarter of a 

 knight's fee there of Wilham Martyn, who held of 

 John of Luccombe. 



As one stands under the big trees watching 

 Sidney Tucker kennelling his pack and drawing 

 out his tufters, one can hardly help calling to mind 

 that the selfsame thing has been done in the same 

 way, at the same spot, for hundreds of years. 

 Boots and breeches may have altered, coats may be 

 better cut, the horn may be straight and not curved, 

 saddles neater and lighter, hounds may be cleaner 

 limbed and faster (horses probably have changed but 

 ' little), but the sport is the same, and in all its 

 essentials has changed not at all. The harbourer, 

 as of old, has done his work and harboured his deer, 

 he and the huntsman go forth into the depths of 

 Horner to rouse him and get him away, and it is 

 ours to gallop at a discreet and sober interval behind 

 the hounds as they fly forward over the bleak hills 

 of Somerset. 



What crowds of good sportsmen have stood beside 

 the sunk fence which bounds the meet field. Sir 

 Thomas his Honour, the lord of the soil, who hunted 

 the country in so princely a manner in the century 

 before last; Parson Boyse, of Withypool. to whose 

 hunting diary the present generation are indebted 

 for the accounts of so many famous runs. Stag- 

 hunter Boyse was an authority sans appelle in all 

 matters relating to staghunting, and a brilliant 

 horseman ; his parish luckily did not require, as it 



