HAMPSHIRE 113 



Before I hunted a month in Hampshire, 1 pronounced it to be 

 the most difficult countiy to kill a good fox in that I ever had seen, 

 and my opinion is in nowise changed. By the time Christmas is 

 past, if the weather be open, more than half of it is ploughed ; and 

 from the constant changing from pretty good to very bad land, 

 hounds are always uncertain of their scent, and consequently afraid 

 to hold on. To this must be added the number of small as well as 

 large coverts which abound in it, where foxes ai-e always ixiaking 

 work, and have the advantage. Exclusive of these, the large hedge- 

 rows he meets with enable him to turn back, unperceived, upon the 

 hounds, and consequently to gain time. 



I have said enough to prove the difficulty of killing a good 

 Hampshire fox, but I have not done. It may l)e safely asserted, 

 that Mr. Villebois' hounds in chase are two-thirds of their time 

 either in covert or on ploughed land, which generally carries; and 

 although there are fences in his country, yet there are no brooks, 

 nor anything sufficiently strong to keep back the body of the horses, 

 so that hounds are always more or less pressed upon when at fault. 

 The foxes also seldom run straight, so that all the field get up 

 sooner or later ; and some of them accidentally find themselves 

 before the hounds, when they had good reason to think they were 

 behind them. 



Mr. Villebois then has these evils to provide for : — In the first 

 place, he must sacrifice anything to nose, for your stiff-necked ones 

 will never do in Hampshire. He must have legs and feet of the 

 very best form, or they will not stand the flints. He must have 

 speed, or his hounds could not get away from the horses. He must 

 have power, particularly in the loins, or they would not only not 

 get up the hills quick enough for their foxes, but they would not be 

 able to carry the weight that sticks to their feet over these greasy 

 fallows. They must have high form and symmetry, or they would 

 not do what is required of them ; neither would they do for Mr. 

 Villebois. 



It will readily appear that Mr. Villebois is very strong in his own 

 blood ; and, with the exception of a few Fitzwilliam bitches, and now 

 and then a cross from his neighbours, he is not much indebted to 

 distant kennels. The character of his hounds is very strongly 



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