38 NOTITIA VENATICA. 



describe the deliglit of the whole pack, and of their gallant general, 

 would, I fear, spoil the picture ; one favourite actually jumped upon the 

 quarters of the horse, and Hckcd his master's face ; it was next to an 

 impossibility to call them off, and the only means to persuade them to 

 proceed was for Mr. Musters to ride several miles out of his way to con- 

 duct these faithful creatures to the inn where they Avere to be lodged 

 for the night. 



The second anecdote is of a hound-bitch called Frenzy, which came to 

 me in 1834, with some others from Overton, in Hampshire, where the 

 kennel of the Vine hounds is situated. Being on heat when she arrived, 

 she was accordingly shut up separate, and in due course of time, being- 

 taken to exercise with the rest of the pack, availed herself of the first 

 opportunity of decamping, and arrived, as a letter from Adamson the 

 huntsman informed me, on the second day, having travelled through 

 four counties, a distance of upwards of one hundi-ed miles. She was 

 immediately sent back to the place of her former destination, to which 

 she returned safe, and after some weeks produced a litter of whelps, 

 which she reared ; but no sooner were they weaned, than she undertook 

 a second visit to her native place with equal celerity. She was accord- 

 ingly sent back again, and having arrived within ten miles of the end of 

 her journey, was tied up by the carrier in a stable with a cord, which 

 she bit in two during the night, and, for a third time, retraced her steps. 

 It was then considered useless to be at any more trouble about her, 

 and she Avas aUoAved to end her days where she had commenced them. 



Another curious circumstance occurred about forty or fifty years ago, 

 when the Holderness country was hunted by one of the Bethel family, 

 of Rise. Some draft hounds wei'c sent into Kent from Mr. B.'s kennel, 

 by a saihng vessel from Hull ; but upon their arrival they refused to re- 

 main at their new quarters, and actually found their way back by land 

 as far as Lincoln, where they Avere taken up, having accomphshed more 

 than tAvo-thirds of the distance home. 



In a former part I mentioned that the " Sinniugton Hunt," in the 

 north of Yorkshire, was supposed to have been the first society of fox- 

 hunters constituted as a club or hunt in England. However, Thomas 

 FoAvnes, Esq., of Stapleton, in Dorsetshire, is set doAvn as the first gen- 

 tleman Avho Avas knoAvn to have kept a regular pack of hounds to hunt 

 exclusively the fox ; and " these hounds," says the Rev. William Chafin, 

 in hh Anecdotes respecting Cranhourn Chase, " AA'ere sold about the 

 year 1730 to Mr. BoAves, Avho lived in Yorkshire, andAvcre as handsome 

 and as AveU appointed as the most celebrated packs of the present day. 

 They were taken into Yorkshire by their OAvn attendants, and, after 

 being much admired in their kennel, a day Avas fixed for making trial of 

 them in the field, to meet at a famous hare-co\ev near. When the 

 huntsman came Avith his hounds in the morning, he discovered a great 

 number of sportsmen Avho were riding in the cover, and Avhipping the 

 furzes as for a hare ; he therefore halted, and informed Mr. Bowes that 

 lie Avas unAvilling to throAV oft' his hounds until the gentlemen liad I'etired 

 and ceased the slapping of Avliips, to which liis hounds Avere not accus- 

 tomed, and he Avould engage to find a fox in a fcAv minutes if there Avas 



