The Hambledon. 91 



Winchester is its extreme nor'-westerly point. From 

 there it runs down to Southampton ; and carries fox- 

 hunting along the Southcoast, as near to Gosport and 

 Portsmouth as the fortifications of Ports down Hill will 

 allow, till it reaches Havant — where Lord Leconfield 

 takes up the thread, lending, however, to the Hamble- 

 don a strip of his territory between (approximately) 

 Up Park and the village of Funtingdon. The Ham- 

 bledon Country, indeed, is (with the exception of a 

 small corner of Lord Leconfield^s) the only source 

 from which the soldiers and sailors of these garrison 

 seaports can get their hunting — unless they take the 

 train inland, or the ferry-boat across to the Isle of 

 Wight. Some few of them adopt the sensible plan of 

 keeping their horses at the pretty little town of 

 Bishops Waltham, which besides being nearly in the 

 centre of the country — and easily commanding' all the 

 best of it — is only a short distance from the Kennels. 

 The last point is always a desideratum when you are 

 hunting with a single pack. The day's proceedings 

 and duration, the direction and order of the draws, 

 must necessarily be arranged with the hounds as one 

 of the leading considerations. If your starting-point 

 is much the same as theirs you naturally share the 

 benefit. But, besides this and besides the advantage 

 of their company and guidance to covert and home if 

 wanted — there is the opportunity for acquiring a 

 vested interest in the doings of the pack that you will 

 attain in no other way. You may learn to know 

 individual hounds before you see them at work as a 

 body ; you can then note them in the field when no 

 one is at your elbow who could help you with name or 



