HAMPSHIRE 



THE H. H. OB HAMPSHIRE, AND THE HAMBLEDON HOUNDS. 



I NEVER hunt in Hampshire when I can help it — that is to say, 

 when I can hunt in a better country ; but there is an instinct that 

 takes a man to hounds when they meet within reach of his stable, 

 which it is quite impossible to resist. I have known what it is to 

 repose upon a bed of roses ; and, like most of my kind, I have 

 languished upon a bed of thorns ; but to ride a good hunter over a 

 bed of flints is a misery which was reserved for me till I came to 

 reside in Hampshire. 



Bad as this country, however, is, and little as I have hunted in 

 it, I have experienced a great deal of pleasure from the very masterly 

 manner in which Mr. Villebois hunts it — it being quite impossible 

 for any establishment to be better conducted than his ; and the only 

 alloy that attends it, is the painful recollection, that so fine a kennel 

 of hounds, so able a huntsman, such clever whippers-in, such a 

 liberal master, and so good a judge, should not all be transplanted 

 into a better country. Here, however, are they fixed ; and fortunate 

 is it for the Hampshire sportsmen that they have them ; and I have 

 good reason for knowing that they are not unmindful of their 

 treasure. 



Although Mr. Villebois has no subscription to his hounds — not 

 even an earth stopped for him — they are better known by the name 

 of the H. H., or Hampshire Hunt, which is a title of old standing 

 in this county. Their kennel is at Harmsford, four miles from 

 Alresford on the Basingstoke side of the town, and close to the 

 mansion in which Mr. Villebois resides, and where he rents a farm 

 of five hundred acres. He also occupies a still larger farm of his 

 own in the neighbourhood of Popham Lane — so that he cannot be 

 said to be in want of rural occupations. The kennel was built by 



