The South Berkshire. 257 



THE SOUTH BERKSHIEE.* 



The South Berks Country rides the Thames about 

 Reading. Indeed,, it might almost be called the 

 Beading Country — that town being its one base. 

 Under Mr. Hargrave^s Mastership everything con- 

 nected with the Hunt is done on a scale that can only 

 be termed superh. He has a beautiful pack of hounds 

 numbering sixty couple) ; the Kennels — at the 

 ^' World's End/' about two and a half miles out of 

 Reading, on the Bath road — are very perfect ; and the 

 men are mounted and turned out exceptionally well. 

 In Roake of the South Berks, by the way. West of the 

 Vine, and Tread well of the Old Berks, we find that 

 three contiguous packs are now hunted, with eminent 

 success, by men who have wielded the horn for the 

 huge fields of the Pytchley, the Cottesmore and the 

 Quorn respectively ; and who do their work none the 

 worse in a quieter field of action, that they have 

 experienced the dash of high-scenting grass, and the 

 rush of an overwhelming multitude. In South 

 Berkshire it is hunting always, the scent to be sought, 

 the line to be picked out — except when on the Downs 



* Vide "Stanford's Large Scale Map," Sheet 21; also "Hobson's 

 Foxhuntino- Atlas." 



