MR. EDWARD FAIRFAX STUDD 171 



closed to hounds until after Christmas. In fact, the 

 master was put to it to fit in two days a week and 

 had to have frequent recourse to such places as 

 Bridford Wood and Dunsford Bridge. Mr. Studd, 

 too, was away a great deal this season. 



Nevertheless, as happens even in the worst of 

 seasons, there were some days when scent served well, 

 and on those good runs were scored. 



Thus, on a bleak and misty 4th December, one fox 

 was killed after a fast forty minutes round Haldon 

 and Whiteway ; this success was followed im- 

 mediately by a run from the Half Moon Piece at 

 Whiteway, by Bramble and Higher Ashton Brakes to 

 Loyal Moor and to ground, dead beat, in Whiteway 

 drain ; and this fox had hardly got to ground when 

 another was holloa'd away, taking the pack through 

 Oxencombe, over the plain of Haldon by the Race 

 Stand to Goosemoor, Freer's Bottom, by Woodlands 

 House to Bickham, and ultimately to ground in the 

 stronghold of the Round O. 



Lord Clifford, though not a hunting man, has 

 always been a staunch fox-preserver, and, moreover, 

 no difficulty has ever been made about drawing his 

 coverts. He it was who provided the fox which gave 

 a capital chase on the 15th December, 1890, keeping 

 well to the open country. First visiting Chudleigh 

 Rocks, this fox went on to what used to be called 

 Perrott's Plantation, taking its name from the 

 excellent farmer hard by ; from there, over One Tree 

 Hill and by Ideford to Well Covert, which he threaded 

 from end to end, and thence through the Sands and 

 Gappagh Brakes to Sandslade, where he went in. An 

 hour and a half's good hunting run. 



Again, nothing could be better than the doings of 

 the pack on the day they met at Canonteign, 12th 



