362 I 888. 



Digby's time very rarely hunted on the Tatinton 

 side of their country, and Sir Richard Glyn 

 surrendered it, for a time, at any rate, to Mr. 

 Lionel Patten, when that gentleman established 

 the present Taunton Vale. Quite a new era 

 was opened for the Blackmore Vale when Mr. 

 Digby came upon the scene, as that large- 

 hearted sportsman, as Mr. Wingfield, had been 

 a very straight rider in Leicestershire, and 

 when the magnificent estates of his kinsmen 

 came in course of time to his share, he 

 thought the proper line for an English 

 gentleman was to live on his own acres and 

 to do good amongst his neighbours. 



" The Vale of Blackmore was second to 

 none as a scent-carrying country ; hounds 

 could race, and fairly revel on the line of a 

 straight-necked one, as had been proved often 

 enough in Mr. Yeatman's time, when some of 

 the earliest hunting runs written showed the 

 style of doing things sixty years ago. In 

 one account I have seen, they found at 

 Inwood, the seat of the present Master, and 

 ran over Toomer Farm to Stalbridge Park, 



