A DAY WITH MR E. A. V. STANLEY 191 



Staghounds, and with him was the present kennel 

 huntsman, H. Roake, who was for a few seasons 

 huntsman to the Rufford. The 1910 Woodland 

 Pytchley entry- — and Mr Stanley's first for fox- 

 hunting purposes — was numerically strong, compris- 

 ing nineteen and a half couples of bitches. These 

 Roake drew for my inspection on the flags, present- 

 ing a sorty appearance, good quality, and built 

 near the ground. It so happened that the top of 

 the entry was the produce of staghounds on both 

 sides, a very nice litter of three couples, by Devon 

 and Somerset Vendor (1908) from Ouantock True- 

 lass (1906). The dam of this litter strained back to 

 a noted hound of Mr Stanley's old pack, named 

 Tradesman, a wonderful line hunter, who could 

 keep the lead, and was the death of many a stout 

 stag and hind. This promising litter were named 

 Venus, Verdant, Velvet, Venery, Vengeance, Venial, 

 and Verily ; the first-named bitch, Venus, standing 

 out by herself, and with excellent bone and feet. 

 Others of the entry were by the Milton sires Pageant, 

 Rookwood, Saladin, and Partner ; Atherstone 

 Villager ; South Shropshire Regulus, Stoker, and 

 Prodigal. For the 191 1 entry, Belvoir blood was 

 liberally dipped into, with satisfactory results. 



A study of the summary of the kennel list dis- 

 closed the fact that the pack was in the zenith of its 

 vigour, with fifty-six couples of bitches ; nineteen 

 and a half couples being one year old, fifteen couples 

 two years old, fourteen and a half couples three 

 years old, four couples four years old, one and a half 

 couple five years old, one and a half couple six 

 years old. The chief purchases came from dis- 

 persal sales of three crack kennels, as follows, the 

 V. W. H. (Cricklade) when Mr Butt Miller retired 

 from the mastership at the end of 1910. At this 



