46 THE SOUTH DEVON HUNT 



Sir Walter's hunting journal is a remarkable little 

 volume. No larger than an ordinary hound list 

 (and, indeed, smaller than some hound lists), it 

 measures only three and a quarter inches by four 

 and a quarter, and is a quarter of an inch in thick- 

 ness. Each of its pages contains from twenty-six 

 to twenty-eight closely written lines in a very small 

 and clear handwriting. It was originally started as 

 an account of the game killed at Haccombe and 

 begins with the 1st September, 1823, two years 

 before its author left Eton. The earlier entries 

 include, under the heading " Hunting," the follow- 

 ing interesting items : " 24th Sep., 1825, 3 hares 

 and a fox " ; " Feb. 14th, 1826, 1 hare, 1 fox " ; 

 and " Mch. 29th, 1826, 1 fox." And in the sum- 

 mary for the shooting season ending February, 1829, 

 " by the harriers — hares." 



These entries at first sight might lead one to 

 conclude that the harriers trespassed on the domain 

 of the foxhounds. But the Stover establishment 

 had been broken up by February, 1826, which leaves 

 only one fox accounted for by the harriers for the 

 three preceding years covered by the journal. This 

 does not point to the hunting of foxes being a general 

 practice with the harriers before the foxhounds were 

 disestablished. The harriers in question were no 

 doubt those of Sir Walter's father, Sir Henry Carew, 

 who kept a pack at Haccombe,^ which was recruited 

 by a purchase of some of George Templer's hounds. ^ 

 It was, no doubt, with his father's harriers that Sir 

 Walter acquired the rudiments of his knowledge of 

 hunting that stood him in such good stead later on. 



* See the reference to Sir Henry Carew'3 Harriers in the account of 

 *' A Devon Hunt of 1823 " in Appendix A. 



* See p. 22. 



