HUNTING 233 



To recount all the merry days and good 

 hunts that we had with Mr. Collier would fill a 

 book of itself, but there came a day when the 

 old man had to tell us that he was no longer 

 able to hunt his hounds, and his nephew, Mr. 

 Fred Collier, succeeded to the mastership of the 

 Culmstock Hounds. This was in 1890. 



Fred Collier was a splendid specimen of an 

 athletic Englishman, and as an untiring walker 

 simply unrivalled. Of course he knew all about 

 otter-hunting, but he did not consider his field 

 enough, and was very apt to stride from end to 

 end of a good trail and then decide that his 

 otter was left between the two points, and back 

 he would stride to find him. Very often this 

 did not come off, for the day had grown older, 

 and the holt where the otter was laid up, which 

 the slower progress of "Uncle William" would 

 have located, was not so easily spotted on foiled 

 ground, three hours later. However, with this 

 little fault, born of lusty manhood, Fred Collier 

 showed us capital sport till 1899, when an accident 

 befell him, and he resigned the hounds. 



Meanwhile a quasi-local pack had come into 

 existence under the experienced hands of Mr. 

 Courtenay Tracy, who established a country on 

 the rivers of Surrey, Hants, Wilts, and Dorset. 

 He very badly needed a wild sporting bit of 



