CHAPTEE XI. 



SKETCHES OF HUNTING WITH FOX-HOUNDS AND HARRIERS. 



The Fitzwilliam. — Brocklesby. — A day on the Wolds. — Brighton 

 harriers. — Prince Albert's harriers. 



The following descriptions of my own sport with fox- 

 hounds and harriers will give the uninitiated some idea 

 of the average adventures of a hunting-day : — ^ 



A DAY with the LATE EARL FITZWILLIAM 's HOUNDS.* 



The kennels of the Fitzwilliam Hounds are at Milton 

 Park, three miles from Peterborough, which four rail- 

 ways intersect, and eleven miles from Stamford. 



The Fitzwilliam pack was established by the grand- 

 father of the present Earl between seventy and eighty 

 years ago ; they hunt four days a week over a north-east 

 strip of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire — a wide, 

 wild, thinly-populated district, with some fine woodlands ; 

 country that was almost all grass, until deep draining 

 turned some cold clay pastures into arable. It holds a rare 

 scent, and the woodland country can be hunted, when a 

 hot sun does not bake the ground too hard, up to the 

 first week in May, when, in most other countries, horns 

 are silenced. The country is wide enough, with foxes 

 enough, to bear hunting six days a week. " Bless your 

 heart, sir," said an old farmer, " there be foxes as tall 



* This sketch was written in 1857. 



