THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT's HOUNDS. 167 



the experience and opportunity he had of forming an opinion. 

 Amongst bullfinches, where hounds must creep, of course 

 smaller ones would have the best of it. 



When a man is well mounted on a horse that will jump up, 

 and knows them, the wall country is very pleasant to ride over, 

 and, if you go slowly at them, not half so dangerous as it looks, 

 as in that case a horse will knock a good deal of stone-work 

 down, with nothing much worse than a scramble ; but if you are 

 going fast, and he catches them, they will turn him over like 

 timber. In the lower portions of this country you want a 

 really clever hunter, as the fences are not altogether of a cut- 

 and-dried description, though a very good man, when I first 

 hunted in it, said, " If there is no ditch to you, you had better 

 go quick, for you are sure of one on the other side ; but, with a 

 ditch your side, take the place steadily, and land on the bank if 

 you can. Very likely there is another on the other side, as doubles 

 are occasionally met with." The grass here rides much heavier 

 than in the Midlands, and as the fields are large, and hounds 

 go the pace, you want quite first-class hunters under you. Banks 

 also are plentiful, and I have seen ha-ha's faced with stone, so 

 that a horse which can go well to hounds over the duke's 

 country may be pretty safely backed to hold his own anywhere. 

 With such hounds and such a country, I need scarcely say that 

 there is no lack of visitors, and stable-room is generally at a 

 premium anywhere within reach of their meets. I ought to 

 have said that they have some rough hill country towards 

 Bath, which is used for cub-hunting only, and where they can 

 commence as early as they like, so that the young ones are 

 early initiated into the mysteries of their business. 



Like the origin of many other packs, the start of this one, well- 

 known as it now is, is involved in some degree of obscurity, and it 

 cannot be said exactly at what period they commenced fox-hunt- 

 ing ; but we know that Henry, the fifth duke, kept stag-hounds 

 here, and at Netheravon, in Wiltshire, about 1753. The current 

 story is that, returning from deer-hunting one day, he, from 



