DORSET AND DEVON 103 



At length tall Trunnion, with resistless launch, 

 Outstrips the rest, and fastens on his haunch 

 With savage fury ! Now thy wretched wife 

 May well bewail her spouse bereft of life ; 

 And, growling mournfully, each long-tailed son 

 Lament his father's race untimely run, 

 For forty mouths at least, with piercing fangs, 

 Drink thy heart's blood, and revel in thy pangs. 



'Tis o'er! and Stephen winds thy death-note. shrill. 

 Which quick returns again from Brushford Hill 

 And Milsum Castle Wood, re-echoed back. 

 Now homewards slowly plod the weary pack. 

 Whilst the keen sportsmen, riding o'er the plain, 

 In eager converse kill their fox again ! 



I am now about to impose upon myself a task which I shall have 

 some difficulty in performing — namely, an attempt to describe a 

 system of hunting pursued by that well-known sportsman Mr. 

 Templer, of Stover House, near Chudleigh. 



Mr. Templer's hounds are professedly fox-hounds, inasmuch as 

 they hunt and run nothing but fox ; yet they are not all thorough- 

 bred fox-hounds, nor indeed would it be possible, without travelling 

 to all the kennels in England, to get fox-hounds of his size — not 

 exceeding nineteen inches. The most extraordinary part of this 

 establishment is, that in their own country this pack is never suffered 

 to taste the blood of a fox, if by hard riding or by any other fair 

 means it be possible to prevent it. The following is the system 

 pursued : — The hounds generally meet at a covert, with the intention 

 of finding a wild fox. If they do find him, he must look sharp for 

 his life, for they are capital hunters, and very quick. If he sinks 

 before them, some of the field — among whom are two or three 

 particularly mi fait at this work — get forward and pick him up by 

 his brush. The hounds, partly from their being in the habit of 

 being stopped by a rate, with a fox in view, and partly from their not 

 possessing that power which larger hounds would have, are more 

 easily stopped on these occasions than might at first be imagined ; 

 and a great many foxes are picked up unhurt before them. In case 

 the coverts they draw prove blank, a fox in a bag is always in 

 attendance, and is turned down before them in vieio. 



On Monday, the 27th of September, I was out with Mr. Templer's 



