HOUNDS OF ENGLAND. 15 



seldom occurs. Sir A. Cbicliester succeeded the Hon. New- 

 ton Fellowes in the mastership, and he followed either Mr. 

 Stawell, who built the Anstey kennels for these hounds, or 

 the late Sii' Arthur Chichester. Linton and Dulverton, in 

 the North of Devon, are the favoui'ite resorts for the visitors 

 who come to hunt with these hounds. Sir Arthur also loves 

 a fox, and cultivates his growth -with great assiduity. 



" Devonshire," Nimrod says in his " Hunting Tours" (a 

 book, by the bye, which should be found on every hunting 

 man^s shelves), " is certainly the worst hunting country I ever 

 was in ; yet, strange to say, there are more hounds kept in it 

 than in any other three counties m. England." What Nimrod 

 remarked 25 years ago holds good now. Nearly every parish 

 in the South of Devon has its " parish pack ;" besides, there 

 are no less than eight established packs of foxhounds, and, at 

 least, three of otter hounds in the county. The number of 

 hounds is to be accounted for by the nature of the country, 

 its "never-ending, still-beginning" succession of hill and 

 dale rendering communication between the different parishes 

 less frequent than is the case in most other counties ; added 

 to which, the love of hunting, the passion for the chase, though 

 natural to man, is still very distinctively marked in the good 

 people of Devon. A friend of mine, ])eing about to settle in 

 a remote corner of the South Hams, called at the village 

 blacksmith^s to get his horse shod ; but he was told by a boy 

 it could not be done till the following day, for that " Maester 

 was a-go a-hunting." He then went to the butcher's, then 

 to the carpenter's, but at each of their houses he received the 

 same answer that " Maester was a-go a-hunting." ^' Well,^^ 

 said my friend, " as the}^ all seem to have tmTied out, I may 

 as well do so too ;" so, going in pursuit, he soon came up 

 with a large party, " The butcher, the baker, the candlestick 



