The Dulverton. 309 



Dulverton. A glance at the hunting-map will show 

 how capitally situated they are for working the 

 country — while the large tract of heather- clad and 

 well-watered hill immediately at their back, is of 

 inestimable value to the Master and his hounds, 

 allowing them to enjoy theii^ summer training and 

 exercise while others less fortunate are kennel-bound 

 by dust and hard roads. Mr. Bellew is his own 

 huntsman ; and is essentially a hound-man — in the 

 same sense as his is a hound-country as opposed to a 

 riding -country. He believes and trusts in his hounds, 

 and expects them to work and hunt for themselves, 

 though he is ever keeping an eye forward for the 

 explanation of any difficulty that they may be unable 

 to unravel. Amid the rough precipitous valleys and 

 the impracticable banked-fences of the enclosed parts 

 of his country, hounds can never be ridden over, or 

 hurried, by the field, except it is in the lanes to which 

 the progress of the horsemen is necessarily almost 

 entirely restricted. Thus a mutual confidence between 

 huntsman and hounds is both natural and necessary. 

 Hounds must do their own work ; and a huntsman 

 can only take them in hand for a wide bold effort, 

 when theirs has been made in vain and his can be 

 founded on broad reasoning — generally dictated by 

 intimate knowledge of country and much previous 

 experience of the run of foxes. No man can watch 

 hounds at work in such a country without acquiring 

 some useful lessons. It would be a benefit to more 

 than one quick-riding Hunt that we know, if their 

 huntsman, and as many of his competing followers 

 as possible, could be shipped down to the Dulverton 



