144 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



present Lord Gifford hunted the Berkeley hounds 

 a few years since ; and the Hon, Maurice Gifford, 

 despite the loss of an arm in the Matabele war, is 

 a devoted foxhunter. 



Crossing into Hampshire, we reach the country of the 

 Chilworth and Stoneham harriers, with kennels at 

 Chilworth, near Romsey. These hounds muster twenty- 

 five couples of twenty-one- to twenty-two-inch dwarf 

 foxhounds. They hunt a good country within the 

 borders of the Hursley, Hambledon, and H.H. 

 foxhounds. Master Bob Podmore has for the last 

 two seasons (1901-3) been the nominal head of a 

 pack of harriers in the Vine country, of which his 

 father, Mr, E. B, Podmore, was Master, Mr, Podmore 

 himself hunted both packs of hounds. Master Podmore 

 is, I suppose, the only school-boy in England filling 

 the high office of Master of Harriers, His pack numbers 

 twelve couples of twenty-and-a-half-inch hounds. The 

 kennels were at Overton, near Basingstoke. As Mr, E, 

 B. Podmore has migrated from the Vine to the Cotswold, 

 it is to be supposed that his son's harriers will no longer 

 hunt in Hampshire, The Isle of Wight shows one 

 harrier establishment — " The Isle of Wight," a private 

 pack, maintained at his own expense by Mr, F. T, Mew, 

 of Newport, with kennels at Whitewaits Wootton 

 Common, The pack consists of fifteen couples of 

 harriers, bred mainly from the Taunton Vale, Sea- 

 vington, and Mr, Chorley's strains. They hunt two 

 days a week over a varied country, consisting of plough, 

 grass, moor, and downland. It is not very unusual 

 for a hare to run the seashore. 



Dorsetshire has, apparently, no single pack of 

 harriers of its own, surely a strange phenomenon ! 

 Here, in a sporting country, with plenty of rough, 

 wild land in places, one would have thought a pack 



