432 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



fare, by change of garb, by the herding together of summer 

 associate, or even by the wolfish yell of two-to-one-bar-one. 

 " There be airs which the physicians advise their patients to 

 move into, which commonly are plain champaigns, but grasing 

 and not overgrown with heather ; or else timber shades as in 

 forests." Where will you find such airs better than in the New 

 Forest, when a cool breeze is blowing under a May Day sun, 

 through clouds of tree blossom and over beds of bloom, and 

 when active sport -may be had amid a very revelry of nature's 

 fresh beauty. I will tell what I saw, taking it for granted 

 that you, too, know nothing of hunting the wild fallow 

 deer as I knew nothing this morning, and now only know 

 enough to wonder at the science and skill that the sport 

 needs. 



For some twenty years I have heard of Mr. Lovell hunting 

 the buck. Every year doubtless has added to his knowledge of 

 the craft ; and of late years his pack has been greatly improved. 

 Now he delegates a huntsman of his own teaching (Allen) to 

 do the bulk of the work. 



The meet of the staghounds to-day was at Ocknell Pond ; 

 and thither about midday we sauntered under the sunshine 

 the air gradually cooling and freshening as we emerged from 

 the blossom-decked orchards of Lyndhurst to mount the heather- 

 clad ridges above. Hounds were already on the spot with 

 their green-liveried attendants on horseback and on foot when 

 the Master rode up with Mrs. Francis and Miss Lovell. A 

 very sturdy workmanlike pack Bramham all over, and notice- 

 ably so, afterwards, in their pushing and undaunted vigour 

 upon a lukewarm scent. It seemed odd to a new comer that 

 each hound should have his neck embraced by a leather collar 

 bringing to mind irresistibly the double-all-round throttle- 

 kerchief with which young England loves to force his, or even 

 her, eyes out of their sockets, lest anyone should fail to perceive 

 that he, or she, is of sport, sporting. In this case there was of 

 course some better reason not, as in m}' ignorance, it first 

 flashed across my inquiring thoughts, a compromise with the 



