THE BLACKMORE VALE HOUNDS. 215 



In Mr Farquharson's time lived the celebrated 

 Butterwick Jack, a fox that was always found in 

 one of the Holnest coverts known by the name 

 of Butterwick. I have often heard my father 

 speak of the wonderful runs he had enjoyed after 

 this fox. Jack indeed became so knowing that the 

 slamming of a gate or a rate to a hound in the 

 neighbourhood of his home covert was enough to 

 set him off, and he invariably took a straight 

 line to Dorchester. Near this town he was always 

 lost, his refuge being in some large meadows a 

 great many miles from Holnest. After an un- 

 usually good run, Butterwick Jack was one day 

 lost as usual in the Dorchester meadows when 

 these were under water. As soon as the floods 

 subsided Jack's lifeless body was found, but 

 whether he had been drowned in trying to cross 

 the submerged land, or whether he had been 

 flooded out from some accustomed shelter in a 

 drain, those who regretted his loss never knew. 



In the early years of Mr Drax's mastership his 

 hounds were known as the Charborough Pack, 

 from Charborough, near Wareham, one of the 

 Master's estates. Thanks to Mr Merthyr Guest, 

 who by his patient research has done much to clear 

 up the somewhat involved history of the various 

 packs that hunted over different parts of the 

 country in the early years of the last century, 

 Mr Drax's hound lists have been put into clear 

 and useful form. These lists are, however, shorn 

 of some of their interest by the fact that from 



