58 NIMROD'S HI MING TOUR 



to the test, when Sir Bellingham had the Athei'stone country. He 

 was upon a mare that Sir Belhngham had bred, and which, until 

 she was seven or eight years old, had proved very unwilling to 

 make a hunter, and had given him a great many falls. He was, 

 however, determined to get the better of her, declaring she was 

 " sure to make a good one some day." The hounds got into Annes- 

 ley Deer Park, and Sir Bellingham and Kitt came up to the pales 

 (which were very high) at the same moment. " Now, Kitt," says 

 Sir Bellingham, " citJier you or I must get to them. Come! you 

 talk a great deal about your mare — let us see what she can 

 do." Kitt immediately put the mare at the pales, and cleared 

 them. Sir Bellingham cheered him when over, and immediately 

 followed. 



During my visit to Surrey, I hunted five times with Colonel 

 Jolliffe's hounds, but was unfortunate in not being out on their good 

 days. The first time I saw them, I missed a pretty half hour, 

 owing to my horse being turned back at the turnpike ; and the 

 second day I met them in a country not very propitious to sport. 

 Neither the Colonel nor Mr. William Jollifl'e was out, and the 

 hounds had had a hard week of it ; so Eoffey (the huntsman), casting 

 his eye around us, trotted us through two or three small coverts in 

 the neighbourhood, where no fox was at home, and landed us com- 

 fortably in Bansted Park for the day— a covert of about one thousand 

 acres, very difficult to get away from, and which should be put in 

 the Litany as one of those evils from which we sportsmen pray to be 

 delivered. I met them twice at Walton Heath, but did not get a 

 gallop ; and afterwards at their kennel, when I saw them race a fox 

 up wind and burst him in less than twenty minutes ; and this was 

 nearly all I did see, excepting a most complete pack of fox-hounds, 

 by far the best in Surrey. 



Colonel Jolliffe was kind enough to tell me that I should see his 

 hounds in the vale, as they could not shew themselves on the hills, 

 in which I agreed with him. We fixed a day, and I met them at 

 Povey Cross, twenty-seven miles from London on the Brighton road. 

 The following note, which I found on my table two days after- 

 wards, will best explain the sport of the day. It is from an excellent 

 sportsman, and said to be the best performer in the Hunt : — 



