A HISTORY OF DORSET 



it. A day or two afterwards a groom arrived 

 and told the disappointed sportsman that he had 

 taken a horse that belonged to someone else and 

 at the same time handed him a cheque for ;{^I50 

 to soften the blow. The generosity of the 

 prince, however, did not end there, for a little 

 later he gave the parson another look into his 

 stables, saying : ' I am sorry you lost your horse, 

 Billy ; go into my stables and take another.' 



Of the runs during the time when Mr. 

 Yeatman hunted the country, there are some 

 very interesting records in an old Hunting 

 Journal of the Blackmore Vale Hounds from 

 1826— 1 83 1, and a note at the commencement 

 says : — 



In perusing the Hunting Journal of the Bl.ickmoor 

 Vale fox-hounds, it must not be forgotten : first, that 

 a very considerable part of the countr}' which their 

 proprietor established in the spring of 1826, had not 

 been hunted at all for nearly thirty years ; that the 

 foxes had been systematically destroyed, and even that 

 their haunts and earths were known to few, if to any 

 persons, except to those who dealt in their destruc- 

 tion ; secondly, that this small extent of country had 

 never been hunted before by any gentleman as an 

 entire country ; thirdly, that at its extreme north- 

 eastern Wiltshire extremit}' the covers are of enormous 

 extent, and so full of earths as to baffle the vigilance 

 of the most careful and active stopper ; fourthly, that 

 a large portion of the country lying between Yeovil 

 and Compton Castle is nearly destitute of cover of 

 any description capable of holding a fox during the 

 winter months, consisting almost entirely of sandy 

 arable land, intersected by roads, and notorious as bad 

 scenting ground ; and lastly, that a system of annoy- 

 ance, bordering on persecution, in the county of 

 Dorset was not wanting to superadd difficulties to the 

 whole of no ordinary kind, such indeed as must be 

 continually kept in view by the courteous reader of 

 the following pages. 



Truly wonderful are the accounts of some of 

 the runs, both for distance and duration, as the 

 following two examples testify. 



Friday, 29 October 1830. — Hounds met at 

 Inwood, where a very old and gallant dog fox 

 was found immediately. After three ineffectual 

 attempts (being headed by a large and anxious 

 field) he got away on very good terms to Toomer 

 Farm, and under Frith Wood. The hounds 

 pressed him at the top of their speed through 

 Purse Caundle to Hanover Wood, and away for 

 Plumley Wood and New Lease Coppice ; then 

 across the inclosures for the village of Stourton 

 Caundle, crossing the Caundle River for the 

 plantations and park adjoining Stock House, and 

 leaving the main covers to the left. Making 

 their way over Blackrow Common for the River 

 Lyddon the pack began to consider him as their 

 own, running him at a killing pace by Rooks- 

 moor to Haselbury Common, where the pack 

 divided ; one column of hounds running into 

 the hunted fox in view one field short of Dead- 

 moor Wood, and the other column of hounds 



running their fox to a drain under Wonston Hill 

 near Mappowder, after a splendid run of two 

 hours and fifty-five minutes over a good twenty 

 miles of ground. The dead fox was given to 

 the pack ; the other was saved and bolted in 

 security, after the pack had been sent home. 



Tuesday, 22 March 1831. — The Blackmore 

 Vale hounds met at Charlton Horethorne and 

 were walked on to the celebrated gorse cover of 

 Caundle Brake, where they found their fox imme- 

 diately. Going away close to his brush through 

 Frith Wood to Plumley Wood, they followed 

 him to Ashcombe Wood, Haydon, and Goathill, 

 making their way through Sherborne Park to 

 Honeycombe Wood, crossing the corner of it 

 by Lillington, through Thornford toBeer Hackett. 

 Then sinking the hill at Knighton for Frankham 

 Farm, within a few fields of Clifton Wood, they 

 pressed him at akillingpacealongthefine inclosures 

 of the Yetminster Vale to Ryme, and through the 

 covers of the earl of Ilchester at Melbury to 

 Clarkham in Halstock parish, where they got up 

 to him. Traversing the open common and in- 

 closures at East Chelborough they went at a 

 racing pace nearly to Corscombe, from whence 

 the pack fairly turned him to West Chelborough, 

 and there this gallant fox reached his earth in 

 safety a few yards before the hounds, after a run 

 of three hours and forty-five minutes, through 

 fourteen parishes, over rather more than twenty- 

 five miles of country. 



It seems that Mr. Humphrey Sturt in the year 

 1805 or 1806 kept a pack of hounds at Clyffe, 

 for Mr. John House of Anderson left a record 

 of a great run with him in January of one of 

 those years. A stump-tail fox was dug out at 

 Milton Park, and brought over to Clyffe and 

 let loose in a cellar. The frost being rather 

 severe he was kept there for a day or two, and 

 turned out at Lord's Down, near the old Dew- 

 lish Turnpike Gate, at about twelve o'clock. 

 He went away over Milborne Farm, jumped 

 the fence out of Milborne Eweleaze into the 

 deer-park, then making across the open fields 

 and downs for Whitechurch he turned to the 

 left over Chescombe and Whatcombe Park, 

 went straight ahead over Thorncombe and 

 Down House, crossed the Blandford and Stick- 

 land road, down over the Clyffe, and swam the 

 Stour between Blandford Bridge and Bryanston 

 House. He ran strongly through the deer-park 

 on to Mill Down, over the old Shaftesbury road 

 to Pimperne, which was left on the right, straight 

 on to Tarrant Hinton and Eastbury Park wall 

 through Chettle to Thickthorn, and so to 

 Thorny Down (still keeping the Salisbury turn- 

 pike road on the right). Keeping a straight 

 course over the Minchington Downs and on to 

 Woodyates, he crossed over Verne Ditch or 

 Boverley Dykes into Wiltshire, straight on by 

 the side of the road and the big open country 

 to Harnham Hill within a mile of Salisbury. 



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