NOTITIA VENATICA. 39 



one there. The gentlemen-sportsmen having obeyed the orders given 

 by Mr. Bowes, the huntsman, taking the wind of the cover, threw off 

 his hounds, which innuediately began to feather, and soon got ujoon 

 a drag into the cover, and up to the fox's kennel, Avhich went off close 

 before them, and, after a severe burst over a fine country, was killed, to 

 the great satisfaction of the whole party. They then returned to the 

 same cover, not one-half of it having been drawn, and very soon found 

 a second fox, exactly in the same manner as before, Avhich broke cover 

 immediately over the same fine country ; but the chase Avas much longer, 

 and, in the course of it, the fox made its way into a nobleman's park, I 

 believe Lord Darlington's, which was full of all sorts of riot, and it had 

 been customary to stop all hounds before they could enter into it, which 

 the best mounted sportsman now attempted to do, but in vain. The 

 hounds topped the highest fences, ran through herds of deer and a num- 

 ber of hares without taking the least notice of them ; ran into their fox 

 and killed him, some miles beyond the park ; and it was the unanimous 

 opinion of the whole hunt, that it was the finest run ever seen in that 

 country. An ample collection of field-money was made for the hunts- 

 man, much beyond his expectation, and he returned to Stapleton in better 

 spirits than he left it, and told his story as above related, in which we 

 must allow for a little exaggeration, very natural on such an occasion." 

 This pack was probably the progenitors of some of the very fine ones 

 now in the North. Before this jiack was raised in Dorsetshire, the 

 hounds which hunted in the chase hunted all the animals promiscuously, 

 excepting the deer, from which they were necessarily made steady, other- 

 wise they would not have been suffered to have hunted at all in it. " Sub- 

 sequently to Mr. Fownes setting the example, several packs of foxhounds 

 were kept through England, entirely at the expense, in those good old 

 days, of the individuals themselves, Avho were of that original race of 

 country squires which has since faded away and become mere matter of 

 history. Some hours before ' bright chanticleer proclaimed the dawn,' 

 these hardy sportsmen were in their saddles, and making their way over 

 the then unenclosed country, in those days called Avoids, to some distant 

 and Avild-fox cover, relying upon a find by the assistance of the animal's 

 drag, Avhich they were almost sure to hit upon either in one of the con- 

 tiguous Avarrens oi* in the rick-yard of some solitary farm-house : then 

 was the display of nose and close hunting appreciated ; no chiltUsh 

 jealousy about a good start and good places, but a real enthusiastic 

 enjoyment of the sport. As the pace mended or declined, the hunts- 

 man Avas enabled to discover Avhether his pack Avero running the fox's 

 heel or Avere Avorking their Avay through the tAvistiugs and turnings of 

 his nightly rambles to his kennel ; as they droAV nearer and nearer to 

 their game, the cry groAV louder and the pace faster, till at length the 

 well selected and sheltered brake is approached, where the villain, in all 

 the security that furze and briers could afford him, had concealed him- 

 self as the grey tints of the eastern sky Avarncd him to retire from the 

 prying eye of his enemy, man. As if conscious of the find, the old 

 hounds rush to the spot, thirsting for his blood ; but he has fled, and 

 the welldn rings Avith the melody of the pack and the cheering horns of 



