172 THE SOUTH DEVON HUNT 



February. The local fox refused to leave the rough 

 country around the cleave and eventually went to 

 ground. Kiddens was then drawn blank, but the 

 Belvidere sheltered a brace, one of which safely 

 reached the Round O after a spin via Goosemoor. 

 Fox number three, disturbed in the Round O, went 

 back over the same line of country to the Belvidere, 

 thence to Dunchideock Wood and Cotleigh, where he 

 waited for the pack. The pace improved as hounds 

 ran on over Halscombe to Idestone Farm and back 

 by Dunchideock, and after a ring through School 

 Wood and Belvidere, and a flourish in the direction 

 of the Round O, the hounds pulled him down in the 

 open on Haldon Lawn. There was a rare scent that 

 day. 



At the end of the season 1890-1, the fifth season of 

 this his second mastership, Mr. Studd, to the regret 

 of his supporters, gave up the country, which then 

 for a time, as will appear hereafter, ceased to be 

 hunted by a separate pack.^ 



Mr. Studd was, and still is, an enthusiastic fisher- 

 man both for salmon and trout. A celebrated master 

 of hounds, I think it was John Chaworth Musters of 

 the Quorn, on being asked what he considered to be 

 the best sport in the world is reported to have 

 answered : " Why, of course, foxhun — no ! damme, 

 salmon fishing ! " and I am not sure that Mr. Studd's 

 answer would not have been the same. He would 

 argue that, given the weather conditions necessary to 

 either sport, success in fishing depends more on the 

 individual himself, who is not at the mercy of the 

 many outside influences that so often occur to mar 

 the other sport. The subject is an interesting one to 

 discuss with an exponent of both. 



1 See p. 208. 



