NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



Much of the country hunted by Somervile was 

 woodland, the remnants of that great Forest of Arden, 

 with which Shakespeare was so well acquainted. Most 

 parishes in those days were unenclosed, and first-rate 

 wild sport was enjoyed. Some days in winter Somer- 

 vile hunted hare, a form of chase to which, from his 

 glowing descriptions, he was manifestly passionately 

 attached. His harriers met and threw off usually in 

 the more open parts of the county. Occasionally, it 

 would seem, he visited his Gloucestershire estate and 

 hunted the Cotswolds, following the well-breathed 

 beagles in many a merry hare-hunt in that delightful 

 country. The writer in the Sporting Magazine, from 

 whom I have quoted, obtained his information from a 

 sportsman who had himself been entered to hounds by 

 Somervile's old huntsman, John Hoitt. Hoitt lived 

 to the great age of eighty-five, and died in the year 

 1802, having survived his old master sixty years. 

 From this excellent source, then, we gather that 

 Somervile himself saw to the feeding of his hounds 

 and the management and arrangement of his kennel. 

 " He conducted the chase himself, leaving a man in 

 the kennel to prepare the food, who was in the capacity 

 of earth-stopper. His stud was small, four nags being 

 the greatest number he had in the stable ; employing 

 his favourite hunter, Old Ball, three times in the week. 

 Old Ball was a real good English hunter, standing 

 about fifteen hands high, with black legs, short back, 

 high in the shoulders, large barrel, thin head, cropped 

 ears, and a white blaze down his face." This is an 

 account, mainly derived from Hoitt, of Somervile in 

 his later days, when extravagance and a too prodigal 

 hospitality had somewhat straitened his means. It is 

 probable that in the heyday of his career the poet 

 hunted on a somewhat larger scale. 



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