62 THE SOUTH DEVON HUNT 



me, were in what is known as Kenn Lane, the road 

 leading from the main road near Powderham Arch 

 to the village of Kenn. 



Colonel Anstruther Thomson mentions ^ Ha worth 

 being at Eggesford as the guest of the Hon. Newton 

 Fellowes for the Chumleigh Hunt week in 1845, and 

 as one of six or seven who were in at the death of a 

 fox that, on the same occasion, Jack Russell's hounds 

 hunted through twelve parishes, the run lasting from 

 twelve o'clock until five. But in a previous page,^ 

 while admitting Haworth's keenness, the same author 

 speaks rather slightingly of his abilities as a hunts- 

 man. He says Ha worth was " not much of a hunts- 

 man. He would sit on the top of a hill and view 

 holloa though his hounds were a mile away." With 

 the deepest respect for so great an authority, it seems 

 to me the reason given does not warrant the con- 

 demnation. None will dispute the correctness of the 

 general rule, insisted upon in Anstruther Thomson's 

 Hints to Huntsmen, that a huntsman should go to 

 fetch his hounds rather than holloa or blow for them 

 to come to him. But this general rule, like other 

 general rules, has its exceptions, as, for example, 

 where a huntsman cannot get to his hounds, or when 

 to go there and back would involve undue delay. In 

 Devonshire, such circumstances frequently arise. It 

 may often happen there that, if hounds are half a 

 mile away, a huntsman may have to go a mile to get 

 to them. In such a case, the saving of time, and, 

 perhaps, of a half -blown horse, not only justifies, but 

 demands, a departure from the rule. This shews 

 the fallacy of attempting to apply an inflexible rule 

 to conditions which are never constant. Colonel 

 Thomson's writings shew that he attached undue 



* Eighty Years' Reminiscences, p. 108. ^ Ibid., p. 105. 



