South-and-West Wilts, 365 



strangely un-Englisli land had been born to any souso 

 of the blessinofs of foxhuntino:. It seems scarcelv 

 credible in this year of grace 1883, when the increase 

 of population and the inroads of building are pressing 

 hard upon the space of half the hunting countries of 

 England, and have even crushed some altogether out 

 of being — that a fall, moiety of the county of Somerset 

 (much of it, too, extremely good riding ground and 

 with fully sufficient coverts) should know nothing of 

 foxhunting. Yes — "and pity ^tis ^tis true^' — from 

 Bristol to Bridgewater ; from Bath (and almost from 

 Frome, which is nearly the farthest point westward 

 that the S. and W. Wilts reach) to the very seashore 

 (a space of some 30 miles square being thus included) 

 — not a foxhound is ever seen, for the simple reason 

 that there is not a fox for him ; nor does it appear 

 to occur to the people that the joint presence of such 

 actor and agent -would be in any degree agreeable 

 or beneficial to them. This is by no means in keep- 

 ing with the spirit of western Somerset — where the 

 chase, whether of fox or stag, is upheld by men of 

 every degree with a reverence second only to that 

 paid to orthodoxy of religion. The man of Dunster 

 or the Quantocks might well cast at his compatriot 

 of the diocese of Bath and Wells the poet^s query : 



Lives there a man with soul so dead, 

 Who never to himself has said, 

 This is my own, my native land ? 



and leave the obvious inference to point itself. But 

 this bane does not extend over the edge of the county, 

 as hunted by the S. and W. Wilts round and about 

 Wanstrow, nor does it apply to the adjoining part 



