THE COLLEGE HUNT. 17 



Tne ' Gough breakfasts ' in the Lent term afforded many a 

 pleasant recollection for dreary after fours, and his tales, though 

 generally * twice told,' were rarely tedious." 



H. J. L. B. LeAvis was Master in 1864< with J. B. Wood, 

 A. A. Wace, who is still alive, and R. V. Somers-Smith as his 

 whips. Here is a letter from Mr. Wace which describes the 

 sport with admirable vivacity : 



** The Master of the College Beagles in 1864 was Lewis. He 

 rejoiced in five Christian names ; three, really surnames, indicated 

 Celtic origin, of which he was very proud. Though of a short 

 sturdy frame his lungs were not so good as his heart, as an 

 early death at Oxford showed; and being slow over plough he 

 left much of the field work to his long-legged whips. Lewis 

 had learned how to handle hounds in kennel and field in Wales, 

 and he gave us a very happy season with his knowledge, 

 generosity and good temper. We had, if I remember right, five 

 or six couples ; dwarf harriers, rather than the beagles of Sussex ; 

 though there was one true to the latter type w^hich generally 

 did as well at a bad check as Lewis did. They were kennelled 

 at Ward's Lodge on the Datchet Road. We hunted, I think, 

 three days a week, and our country extended from Salt Hill and 

 Cippenham to as far beyond Datchet as the calls of hall or 

 lock-up allowed us to get. After we had got our little pack 

 and our lungs into some training by following drags we took to 

 hares, but without much success except for exercise. Agar's 

 Plough and Cippenham were always good draws; but we rarely 

 killed, for Ditton Park, lying in the centre of our country, was 

 too convenient a sanctuary. It had its advantages, however, for 

 us as well as for the hares, as we learnt to bless it as an excuse 

 for being late for hall or lock-up. We could so often honestly 

 say that we had lost time in getting hounds out of the Park 

 coverts ; and that seemed to please the Master in College ; for, 

 as he often told us, its ducal owner was his wife's cousin. 

 Hounds, then often disappointed, required blooding with a 

 bagged hare or rabbit, neither ever giving a decent run ; and I 

 disliked the job all the more because Sussex had shown me a 

 better way of using beagles for rabbits ; and I thought of the 

 hours spent with my gun in a ride while real beagles hustled 

 rabbits round and round a big wood. Tiring perhaps of these 

 * bags ' we yield to a suggestion, made I think by Joby Minor, 

 that a badger would give us more fun, certainly more scent, and 

 would always live to fight beagles another day. 



*' It was bought and did give us some fun at first; but this 

 palled because the badger soon realised that it could save its 



