HUNTING 223 



mands, and the country had to make shift with 

 substitutes for the season 1914-15, as under similar 

 circumstances it has had to do before. 



What may be in store for sport and for old 

 England, as the outcome of the terrible times 

 (1915) in which I write, is on the knees of the 

 gods. But of this I feel sure, that, as the earliest 

 recorded English hunting began in New Forest 

 nearly nine hundred years ago, and as the Forest 

 itself was formed and created in the first instance 

 solely for the sport itself, so it will be the last 

 of our English countries in which the sport of 

 hunting will come to that end which we all 

 trust is very far off. 



Of harriers and hare hunting I spoke when 

 referring to Mr. Mills' pack, which he gave up 

 when he took over the western half of the 

 country for foxhunting purposes. 



This was a very beautiful little pack of 

 hounds, about 19 inches high and very level, 

 with necks and shoulders like the highest class 

 of foxhounds. I was puzzled to know how Mr. 

 Mills maintained his high standard, for it was 

 only occasionally that he found a dog-hound 

 with sufficient quality to run with his smart little 

 bitches. Except the two or three couple of 

 dog-hounds that he might chance to find in his 

 own kennel, I cannot think where he found sires 



