The Suffolk 187 



THE SUFFOLK.* 



The Suffolk Hounds hunt over a wide expanse of 

 plough, to the north of the East Essex and the Essex- 

 and-Suffolk countries. They touch the Cambridge- 

 shire, just beyond Newmarket Heath ; but on nearly 

 three sides they have no neighbours. The Cambridge- 

 shire fens place a wide gulf between them and the 

 Milton ; Mr. Hammond^s (the West Norfolk) pack is 

 far away to the north, with a broad district intervening 

 that knows no other sport than shooting; while the 

 Waveney has relinquished a brief existence. With a 

 three-days-a^week pack, the Suffolk cover an area 

 nearly fifty miles across, say, from Needham Market 

 nearly to the town of Cambridge. 



It is pleasant, doubtless, to find raids from other 

 countries seldom coming over the border, and an 

 advantage it must be, too, that the favourite draw 

 mapped out for to-morrow is rarely, if ever, spoilt by 

 the successful inroad of a neighbour to-day. But even 

 to this advantage a compensating evil is attached. A 

 fox run out of the country stands little chance of 

 being driven back again ; and he is more likely to 



* Vide Stanford's " "Hunting Map," Sheets 16 and 17, and 

 Hobson's Foxhunting Atlas. 



