52 HUNTING TOURS. 



of the vulpine family, close to the Great 

 Western Railway, and making a wide cast 

 the hounds got upon the stale line of a fox, 

 when being held on to the wood, a fox got 

 up before them, but whether it was the one 

 they had found in the gorse, or a fresh one, 

 was, in my humble opinion, a matter of 

 doubt ; be that as it may, the scent was so 

 very defective that they could do nothing 

 with him. Milton Gorse was again drawn, 

 when a second fox was found, and after some 

 coquetting he, too, went away, but the neces- 

 sary element was still wanting, and very cold 

 hunting nearly to Marcham Park, the resi- 

 dence of Mr. Duffield, terminated the pro- 

 ceedings of the day. As regards sport — 

 that is, in the riding acceptation of the term 

 — there was none, but I had an opportunity 

 of observing the hounds endeavouring to 

 hunt under insurmountable difficulties — a 

 safer test of intrinsic worth than when with 

 a brilliant scent they are enabled to roll 

 over their fox in a burst of twenty minutes 

 without a check. 



On the following day, by appointment, I 

 paid a visit at the kennels, which are at 

 Oakley House. The list enumerated forty- 



