184 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



all the jumping stone walls; but I thought everything about 

 the hunt was suggestive of enthusiasm, and, in fact, that sport 

 was the great desideratum of the whole establishment. There 

 was none of that easy-going apparent indifference that was 

 rather characteristic in some of the hunts of the 'sixties, no 

 smartly turned-out " swells," as they were then called, no 

 second horses that I can remember, but an all-round strict 

 attention to business. I saw this Western pack twice, and 

 enjoyed myself amazingly, and I have always been glad to 

 notice at the beginning of each season that the country is 

 still hunted by members of the Bolitho family. 



After I left school I was for two whole hunting seasons 

 at Malvern, and during that time I managed to get about 

 seven days a fortnight, and saw many packs of hounds. The 

 countries immediately surrounding Malvern were rather differ- 

 ently constituted to what they now are. There was no North 

 Ledbury, no North Cotswold, and the boundaries of the 

 Croome and Worcestershire were somewhat differently 

 arranged. Indeed, the Croome country was then " Lord 

 Coventry's," and the Worcestershire came quite close to Mal- 

 vern, on the east side, hunting country, which now 

 belongs to the Croome. The district I have in mind is 

 the flat country between the Malvern hills and the river Severn 

 and the country round Cotteridge. These belonged to the 

 Worcestershire when I went to Malvern in 1870, and the late 

 Lord Queensberry was Master of the pack, and then as great 

 a daredevil on horseback as I ever saw. In the following 

 season Mr. H. Allsopp was Master, and I saw one or two 

 capital hunts on the east side of the Severn in the country 

 north of Worcester. Fields with this pack were of fair size, 

 and much of the country very good riding ground, and I 

 formed the opinion that most of the country carried a good 

 scent. There was a good deal of plough in some parts of the 

 country, and I have been told that much of it has been laid 

 down to grass; but it is fifty years since I siaw houndsi in 

 Worcestershire. As it happened, I went much more 

 frequently to the Ledbury than to the Worcesteirshirs. 

 It is all so long ago that I have only to trust to memory, 

 but I imagine that the Ledbury had more near meets to 

 Malvern than the Worcestershire or Lord Coventry's, and 



