173 



CHAPTER XIX. 



THE TEDWORTH. 



Oh ! ye who knew his healthful day, 

 And saw him make triumphant way 

 O'er frowning fence, o'er hill and dale- 

 Saw him the swollen brook assail, 

 And with what ease he could efface 

 The various obstacles of chase. 

 Say — who could beat him in its race ? 



In selecting types of the different districts, so as to give an idea 

 of the same sport under various circumstances, I now come to 

 the Tedworth — a country unique in itself, and still more so from 

 the circumstances that have produced it. Strictly speaking, the 

 Tedworth has no history as a fox-hunting country, apart from 

 that of the great man who founded it. As an entirety, it had 

 never been hunted until the hatter part of the first half of the 

 nineteenth century — in fact, within my own memory, and that 

 of many others who have no more than reached middle age ; so 

 that, unlike the Brocklesby, Belvoir, Badminton, and other 

 hunts, it may be called quite a recent institution. I do not by 

 any means intend to say that parts — nay, nearly all of it — had 

 not been hunted at one time or another by fox-hounds, but that 

 no one individual pack had ever hunted regularly what is now 

 known as the Tedworth country. The Craven, we know, drew 

 the South Grove side, the ]N"ew Forest, and Sir John Barker Mill 

 that portion which is now in the hands of Lord Eadnor ; and 

 no doubt the other borders were infringed on in the same way, 



