CHIEFLY HISTORICAL 13 



The end comes, and the kill and obsequies are 

 described. By Somervile's time, it is clear, the hare 

 was not " cased," or skinned, broken up and thrown 

 to the pack, but dealt with according to present methods 

 • — the hounds being rewarded with the heart and 

 entrails only. 



No prose description of a hare hunt — and the writer 

 has read many hundreds in his time — can possibly 

 eclipse Somervile's blank verse. The whole poem 

 abounds in the most faithful and minute pictures of 

 hunting, and it ought to be in the hands of every 

 sportsman, by whom it may still be perused not only 

 with pleasure but with great profit. 



Peter Beckford, whose " Thoughts on Hunting " 

 are to this hour held in so great estimation by aU con- 

 cerned with the chase of fox and hare, was born in 

 1740, and succeeded to a handsome fortune and estate 

 on the death of his father, Julines Beckford, whose 

 forbears had gathered wealth in the West Indies, 

 Beckford, a man of culture and attainments consi- 

 derably beyond the squires of his day, was Member 

 for Morpeth in 1768 and had travelled abroad. He 

 was manifestly a first-rate sportsman, understanding 

 thoroughly the whole process and economy of hunting, 

 hounds, and horses. He lived in a fine old Georgian 

 or Queen Anne Mansion at Steepleton-Iwerne, in 

 Dorsetshire, and hunted for the most part in Cran- 

 bourne Chase, of which he was Ranger. The country 

 in which he hunted is apparently identical with that 

 now used by the South Dorset foxhounds. Mr. Otho 

 Paget, in his excellent edition of Beckford, published 

 in 1899, gives some interesting details concerning this 

 classic author. He gives also some very interesting 

 pictures of Steepleton-Iwerne (which is still inhabited 

 by descendants of Beckford — the Misses Pitt, his great- 



