CAPTAIN MARTIN E. HA WORTH 67 



ber, when they had a good run from Bradley to 

 Heytor. Then the frost set in and interfered a good 

 deal with sport. This season was characterized by 

 bad weather ; violent storms, torrents of rain and 

 boisterous days occurring with great frequency. 



On Boxing Day a notable run took place from the 

 Large Plantation at Stover (query : the Wilderness). 

 They ran by Ash Hill to Hal Sanger tin mine and 

 Bagtor Wood, thence nearly to Widdicombe and on 

 to Buckland Beacon, through Buckland Wood and 

 Holne Chase, over the Dart and nearly to Holne 

 village, where the fox turned, and he was eventually 

 run into in the open near Holne Bridge. 



After this there was a succession of good runs 

 ending with blood. The season, however, taken as 

 a whole, was a bad scenting one, and frost and snow 

 set in again at the end of January, when the diary 

 ends abruptly. 



From the diary we learn that the coverts drawn 

 from Killerton included Cutton Allows and Stoke 

 Woods. It is interesting, too, to read that a fox 

 found near the house at Oxton, at that time the 

 residence of Mr. H. Swete, a staunch friend to hunt- 

 ing, " immediately went into the otter earths." 



The diary also gives an insight into some of the 

 difficulties that interfered with sport in those days, 

 and we find they are much the same as prevail to-day. 

 Sometimes it is a little difficulty about So-and-so's 

 coverts ; sometimes the members of the field are 

 to blame ; sometimes careless or neglected earth- 

 stopping. Once a hound was caught in a vermin 

 trap and bled to death. Bad weather and bad scent 

 were common then, as now, and mange was not 

 unknown. Wire is not mentioned, but it seems to be 

 referred to (of course not the barbed variety) where 



