28 THE SOUTH DEVON HUNT 



blank in many countries, it is nearly as good as a 

 middling chase to trot away for two or three miles, 

 over hedge and ditch and try another ; but to be 

 trotting up and down the Devonshires lanes for half 

 the day would be anything but agreeable. . . . Mr. 

 Templer rides hard, and had six very clever horses 

 for his own riding, four of which he bred by Czar 

 Peter and Colossus, horses in Mr. Fellowes' stud." 



Of Templer's comrades of the chase, of the Bul- 

 teels, of Jack Russell, of Paul Ourry Treby, of 

 Salusbury Trelawny, of Harris of Hayne, of gallant 

 Tom Phillips and others, much of interest will be 

 found in the works of authorities enumerated at 

 the beginning of this book. Some of them are also 

 mentioned in the account of a run in 1823 given in 

 the Appendix.^ 



Mention has been made of the hunting of hares in 

 Stover Park with a pack of foxes. Another unusual 

 procedure, the coursing of rabbits with foxes and 

 terriers, is thus described in a letter, hitherto unpub- 

 lished, of Jack Russell, written in 1863 to his friend 

 C. A. Harris. He says : 



" Templer had three or four — certainly three — foxes to 

 which, with his terriers, he used to shoot (and course) rabbits 

 and hares too, I suppose, when he found them — but the 

 coursing was performed in this way : A keeper was sent to 

 ferret and take alive as many rabbits as he could. These 

 were brought in a bag to the door of the house, when the 

 party within were summoned to see the fun. The keeper 

 carried the bag containing the rabbits some two or three 

 hundred yards away, the foxes and terriers were brought 

 out, and a rabbit ' enlarged,' and off went the lot after it. 

 As soon as the rabbit was caught and taken from them, 

 they all rushed back to the bag, waiting for another course. 

 But if a fox was first up it was a difficult matter to catch 



^ Appendix A. 



