24 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



borne Chase and Mr. Thomas Fownes hunted most 

 of Dorsetshire long before these dates. The South 

 Dorset and Lord Portman's countries were both part of 

 Mr. Farquharson's Hunt, which existed from 1806 until 

 1858, and of which the Cattistock is the chief successor. 

 The Tedworth country was founded by Mr. Assheton- 

 Smith in 1826, the South and West Wilts was formed 

 by the joining of two packs, the South Wilts and the 

 West Wilts, in 1868, and the Wilton was established by 

 Lord Radnor about the same date — the country being 

 formed of bits lent by neighbouring hunts. The New 

 Forest foxhounds go back to 1780, and the New Forest 

 Hunt Club was established ten years later. 



Devonshire has a dozen packs of foxhounds and 

 Cornwall four. Some of them are of considerable age, 

 but they are more local in character than most of the 

 packs further up the country, and there have been so 

 many divisions, subdivisions, and rearrangements of 

 some of the countries that it is no easy matter to men- 

 tion correctly the dates of their actual commencement. 

 Moreover, in the northern part of Devon foxhunting has 

 a powerful rival in the shape of staghunting, and from 

 Tiverton, northwards to the coast of the Bristol Chan- 

 nel, the staghunter is in a majority amongst local 

 hunting folk. Lower down, that is to say further south, 

 foxhunting is extremely popular, and such hunts as the 

 Mid-Devon and South Devon have a long and honour- 

 able history. 



