The West Kent. 71 



scent and better going serve, though sadly, to 

 illustrate the saying as to an ill wind and the good it 

 blows. 



The Kennels have until lately been at Wrotham 

 Heath ; but the present site is at Warren House, 

 near Otford — in many respects a more suitable place, 

 though at some distance from the Master, being no 

 less than twelve miles from Birling* Manor. 



Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday have 

 been the hunting days, but this season hounds are out 

 five days a week and sometimes six, the Master^s 

 nephew, Lord George Nevill, hunting them when 

 they go into the Bridge country, which is generally on 

 a Wednesday. The meets are fixed as the require- 

 ments of the country demand — no particular rule 

 being observed, beyond that two days are generally 

 given to the hills and two to the vales, and that 

 Monday is nearly always spent in the Penshurst-and- 

 Tunbridge Vale, while on every third Saturday hounds 

 are taken down to the Hundred of Hoo. This latter 

 is a low-lying peninsula forming almost a little 

 country of itself, between the Thames and the Medway 

 and some fifteen miles in extent. There are few 

 coverts in it ; and foxes are generally found in the 

 reed beds near the shore. A fox must swim to reach 

 his kennel on some dry patch, hounds must swim to 

 draw for him, and more than one member of the pack 

 has in past years been lost in the effort. But there 

 is a good covert here of Lord Darnley's, called Chat- 

 tenden Roughs, always full of foxes. And there is a 

 nice thick gorse at Norhead, which place is one of the 

 two usual meets for the Hundred country — the other 



