Lord Portsmouth's. 335 



due in a great measure to tlie personal popularity of 

 tlie Earl of Portsmoutli and his Countess. Tlie latter 

 or one of lier daughters is always to be seen taking 

 active part in the hunting field. 



A great feature of the Hunt in the days of the 

 Hon. Newton Fellowes^ father of the present Master, 

 was the Chumleigh Hunt Week ; but this ceased to 

 exist some thirty years ago. At South Molton in 

 after days a similar happy reunion was held under the 

 name of the South Molton Club Hunt, when the 

 Eggesford, Mr. Kussell^s, Mr. Trelawney's, and the 

 Tiverton Foxhounds would hunt turn about for a 

 fortnight. ^'^ There is wine in the Club cellars still; 

 but the spirit of the club is missing, and its doors 

 are closed.'^ 



Lord Portsmouth's days of hunting are Mondays, 

 Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays — subject to occa- 

 sional necessary change. The River Taw, alongside 

 whose bed runs the South- Western Railway from 

 Barnstaple to Exeter, nearly bisects the country, with 

 a chain of overhanging woods — chief of which are 

 those of His Lordship at Eggesford. The special 

 district for each day is settled by no fixed rule. 

 Perhaps Monday and Thursday are more often in the 

 western half of the country. The new extension in 

 the Hatherleigh and Ashbury direction has been pro- 

 ductive of much capital sport on good ground. There 

 is more moorland hereabouts than in the rest of the 

 country : foxes often find themselves obliged to take 

 to it for their lives ; and hounds have seldom any diffi- 

 culty in pressing them hard. Lying as it does at a 

 great distance from Kennels, it necessarily receives 



