344 THE OLD BERKS HUNT 



In 1887 Mr, Swindell accepted the offer of 

 a fortnight's hunting from Mr. Nicholas Snow, 

 then Master of the Exmoor Foxhounds. He 

 took with him to Exmoor twenty couple of 

 the "lady pack" and half-a-dozen horses for 

 himself and Mrs. Swindell, Fred Mitchell 

 being in charge of the hounds. They stayed 

 at Porlock Weir, and killed their first fox on 

 April the 7th, 1887, after meeting at Comers 

 Gate, now in the Dulverton country. We 

 believe that Mr. Swindell was the first M.F.H. 

 to use the tattooing machine for marking 

 hounds. He orives the followinaf account of 

 its introduction : " One day in 1887 I rode over 

 to Chrishall Grange, near Royston, to see Mr. 

 Jonas, the large sheep breeder, and there I 

 saw the machine being used on the sheep. 

 It struck me at once that it would be a great 

 improvement to use it for marking puppies, 

 instead of branding them in the old-fashioned 

 way with a hot iron ; this I have always classed 

 with roundino- hounds' ears as a most unneces- 

 sary piece of cruelty. I have never done it to 

 hounds which were my own property. Some 

 people will tell you that hounds with unrounded 

 ears get them torn, but my reply to that is, go 

 and look at Mr. George Fitzwilliam's pack at 

 Milton. During the nine years 1 hunted the 

 Puckeridge country I never remember a hound's 



