272 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



couples and Rickaby six," writes Mr. Andrew, 

 and then, after relating the run, he says, " Two 

 couples of ours were first at the kill, then a couple 

 of Rickaby's. All ours were up but one couple." 

 Curiously enough, this custom of joining packs, 

 which one would think modern developments 

 would have rendered obsolete, still survives in 

 some places, and only a few years ago the Thur- 

 stonefield, a well-known Cumberland pack, had a 

 joint hunt with the Abbey Holme, a pack which 

 does not figure in the hound list, but which shows 

 rare sport in a rough, wild country. 



In its more modern form, however, a meet by 

 invitation means one pack of hounds going to 

 hunt in the country of another through the 

 courtesy of the Master of the latter. Sometimes 

 the invitation is given because foxes are rather 

 scarce in the country of the invited ; sometimes it 

 partakes of the nature of a personal compliment to 

 the Master invited, and nothing else. Such was 

 the case when Mr. Thomas Assheton Smith, who 

 was then the Nestor of the Chase, was asked to 

 take his hounds, the Tedworth, to hunt in the 

 Ouorn country, with which his name is inseparably 

 associated. On that occasion the fixture was 

 Shanks on Holt, the field was numbered by 

 thousands instead of hundreds, and the famous 

 Hampshire squire was so touched by the compli- 

 ment paid to him that when he had occasion to 

 " read the Riot Act" — as he was sure to have to 

 do with such a monster field — it was remarked by 

 one who knew him well " that it lacked the usual 

 Hemphasis." 



It is the exceptional size of the field, and the 

 extra amount of jealousy which is astir when the 



