THE OTTERHOUND. 



155 



first of the late Mr. Gage Hodge, of Glaze- 

 brook House, and afterwards of Major 

 Green and Mr. A. Pitman. 



There were three other otter hunts in 

 Devonshire, notably Mr. Cheriton's, Mr. 

 Newton's, and Mr. Collier's. Mr. Cheriton 

 hunted the pure-bred rough Otterhounds, 

 and had some very good-looking ones. He 

 started hunting the North Devon rivers 

 about the year 1850, and continued to do 

 so until early in the 

 'seventies ; but the pack 

 still retains his name, 

 and has now for its 

 Master Mr. Arthur 

 Blake Heineman. A 

 late return gives from 

 ten to fifteen couples 

 of hounds ; about half 

 pure Otterhounds and 

 half Foxhounds. Mr. 

 Newton's hunt became 

 the Tetcot after that 

 gentleman retired ; 

 while on Major Green's 

 retirement in 1902 the 

 Dartmoor went into 

 committee, and is so 

 managed at present 

 under the Mastership of 

 Mr, A. J. Pitman, of the 

 Manor House, Huish. 



The greatest otter 

 hunter of the last 

 century may have been the Hon. Geoffrey 

 Hill, a younger brother of the late Lord 

 Hill. A powerful athlete of over six feet, 

 Major Hill was an ideal sportsman in ap- 

 pearance, and he was noted for the long 

 distances he would travel on foot with his 

 hounds. They were mostly of the pure 

 rough sort, not very big ; the dogs he 

 reckoned at about 23^ inches, bitches 22 : 

 beautiful Bloodhound type of heads, coats 

 of thick, hard hair, big in ribs and bones, 

 and good legs and feet. In seeing them at 

 a meet it was noticeable that some were 

 much shorter in their coats than others 

 not shorter, however, than the coat of an 

 Irish Terrier. Possibly these may have 

 been cross-bred. Something, however, 



must be allowed for the exposure and hard 

 work that falls to the lot of an Otterhound 

 in respect to coat. The Hon. Geoffrey 

 Hill's hounds were in perfect command : 

 a wave -of- his hand was enough to bring 

 them all to any point he wanted, and he 

 was remarkably quiet. This may be essen- 

 tial, as the otter is particularly wary and 

 very easily disturbed. 



It was a narrow, but deep brook, and 



CHAMPION TEAM OF THE DUMFRIESSHIRE OTTERHOUNDS, 

 WITH MR. WILSON DAVIDSON, HON. HUNTSMAN. 



hounds flew from side to side. They did 

 not appear to miss an inch of ground ; 

 everything was examined, and that an 

 otter could be missed seemed impossible. 

 Presently, as two streams met, there was 

 a waving of sterns, a voice giving forth, and 

 then another to swell into a big chorus in 

 a few minutes, and the trail was found. 

 They still hunted steadily. The otter might 

 move now at any second ; but there was 

 no certainty that he would, and the hounds 

 were hanging on his trail, probably twelve 

 hours old, as if glued to him. Major Hill 

 said very little to them, but his experienced 

 eye saw where the real scene of action lay : 

 a bit of a swamp, where several streams 

 united, and down in a gorge under some 



