A SKETCH OF THE BLACKMORE VALE 347 



far as I am in a position to assert) could be taken in no 

 way to represent fairly that well-favoured country. 



It having been already decided that for good reason 

 a fox was, if possible, to be killed from Clifton Wood, 

 spade, pick-axe, and terrier now went to work for two 

 hours. By the time Reynard had been eaten the afternoon 

 had cooled down, and it was thought that hounds might 

 probably run. But, beyond exhibiting to us the depth of 

 some few of the ditches near Yetminster and Thornford, 

 while a vixen fox dodged hither and thither among the 

 banks, they could do little, and were soon taken home. 

 I learn the following names among the field of the day, 

 viz. : Lord Ilchester, General Godfrey Clerk, Captain and 

 Miss Digby, Mr. Wingfield Digby, Madame Spiers, Miss 

 Vaughan Lee, Mrs. and Miss M'Adam, Mr. and Miss 

 Bullock, Mr. and Miss Drake, Miss B. Clark, Mrs. G. 

 Gordon, the veteran Mr. J. Batten, Mr. A. Clayton and 

 Miss Clayton, Colonel Harbin, Colonel Chadwick, Captain 

 Shuldam, Major Nesbitt, Mr. Digby Collins, Mr. H. Neville, 

 Mr. A. Baillie, Mr. Sandford, Mr. Conway, Mr. Marsh, Mr. 

 Dampney, Mr. Whittle, Mr. Andrews, &c. 



Speaking as I do on the insufficient basis of brief 

 acquaintance with the Blackmore Vale, I am inclined to 

 credit that country with some of the following charac- 

 teristics, viz. : as above mentioned, a rich amplitude of 

 coverts and a bountiful supply of foxes, a prevailing 

 extent of good scenting grass, well-watered valleys (con- 

 taining two or three rivers and many negotiable brooks), 

 the whole of this area divided into countless meadows 

 and some few feeding-grounds. That in a run with the 

 Blackmore Vale you are " always in the air " has come to 

 be regarded as a maxim, containing, doubtless, as sound 

 a substratum of truth as is involved in most aphorisms. 

 As a matter of fact you must, if you hunt with that pack, 

 find yourself continually jumping fences ; for, while the 

 hedges, brooks, and banks succeed each other very rapidly, 

 the gates, though genuine gates enough in comparison 

 with those of Ireland, by no means swing readily to the 

 hunting-crop like those of Mid England. They latch 

 usually by their own weight ; their own weight must be 



