84 



CHAPTER y. 



THE BLACKMORE VALE. 



It was soon after Mr George Wingfield Digby 

 had resigned the mastership of the Blackmore 

 Vale that I began to hunt regularly with these 

 hounds. Between the time when Mr Drax hunted 

 the country most nearly coinciding with the 

 boundaries of the modern hunt, and that when 

 Mr Digby took the mastership in 1853, Mr G. 

 Whieldon of Wyke, Captain Stanley, and Viscount 

 Dungarvan shared the responsibilities of office 

 from 1853 to 1855, and Lord Harry Thynne, 

 Mr E,. Strachey, and Captain Stanley were each 

 in turn at the head of affairs for a short time. 

 Then the "Squire of Sherborne Castle" took the 

 reins, and held them till the year 1865. 



Mr Digby was the owner of an immense pro- 

 perty, and he was popular with all classes. His 

 tenants were devoted to him, his genial manners 

 and kindly actions endearing him to them. When 

 I first hunted in the Vale, Mr Digby was still 

 going in the first flight, and never better than 

 when he was on the back of his beautiful chestnut 



