352 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



ings of hunters and hunter scenes have brought him into 

 wide notice). 



I should Hke to have said more about the hounds than 

 a three days' hunting experience and a narrow margin of 

 writing will allow. The kennel has an unbroken record 

 since 1833 ; and, during Mr. Guest's mastership of ten 

 years, new blood has almost yearly been added to the 

 home pack. That the present Master mounts his whole 

 establishment upon grey horses of excellent type, is almost 

 too well known to call for mention here. No one who 

 has seen it can have failed to realise how striking is the 

 daily covertside picture of grey horses and scarlet coats. 

 I was particularly taken with the grand old weight-carrier, 

 Rambler by name, that Mr. Guest rode on Tuesday. 



Of the hounds I confess to liking best the mixed pack 

 which the Master takes out for his own two by-days. 

 Level and neat they are, especially busy and determined 

 in their work. These I saw on Wednesday, when they 

 were taken beyond Wincanton to the north of the country, 

 and met at Redlynch, a charming property of the Earl of 

 Ilchester, whose presence and influence in the country, 

 by the way, are ever of the greatest assistance to its sport. 

 Moor Wood being the adjacent draw, there quickly ensued 

 the seventeen minutes' scurry that I learn has been of late 

 so frequently enacted, to the great overhanging coverts 

 of Stourton opposite. The memorial tower of Stourhead 

 would seem to be a beacon to the Moor Wood fox ; for 

 which he has been wont to jump out of his brambly- 

 kennel and out of covert before hounds had time to pro- 

 claim him found. 



On Wednesday, with a brief check by Walk Covert, 

 caused by his encountering two farm hands in a lane, he 

 took them sharply and prettily to Stavordale Wood. They 

 hunted him down at length in the Alderbed, another of 

 the chain of woods. Afterwards they ran a second also 

 to his death, from Cockrow, twice into the open, the rest 

 by woodland, Mr. Guest thus scoring a capital day's work, 

 which I apologise for having sketched thus briefly. 



