206 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



inside, but that he felt tired and was going home. Soon after- 

 wards hounds went out on the east side and ran by the then 

 much-talked-of Bell agio estate to Hammerwood, and thence to 

 Cowden in the West Kent country. By this time the select 

 few who were left with hounds were all in unknown country, 

 and from that day to this I have never known exactly where 

 we went; but hounds ran on, and when it was almost quite 

 dark killed their fox in a hedgerow. Some seven or eight of 

 the field, and White, the huntsman, were there, and after 

 various wanderings in the dark we reached East Grinstead 

 shortly before eight o'clock, left our horses there, and went 

 home by train. Hounds arrived at the kennels about ten 

 o'clock, and I have often thought this was about the best 

 scenting day I ever remember. Nor can I recall any other 

 day on which two such fine runs came so quickly, or one on 

 which more ground was covered. What the point of the last 

 run was I have never known, because it is impossible to say 

 v/here it ended, but hounds were going on for well over two 

 hours v/ith no check of any consequence, and all the latter part 

 of the hunt was in the West Kent or the Eridge country. 



I may add that some years after these hunts had taken place 

 I was told by the late Mr. " Bob " Fowler, of Liugfield, that 

 the first fox, from the Lingfield raeccourse, was a bag- 

 man, who had been put down only a few minutes before the 

 hounds came. He was, however, a local fox, freshly caught, 

 and not what used to be called a " Leadenhaller," and he 

 was the most satisfactory bagman that I ever saw hunted. 



Hunting from London had greatly declined in the ten or 

 twenty years before the war, and by this I mean hunting on 

 the part of men and women who lived in town and kept their 

 horses in the country, going down by train on the hunting 

 mornings and returning to London after the sport of the day 

 was at an end. The fact is that though quite a score of 

 south-country hunts depend in a great degree upon the 

 London hunting people, a very large majority of the business 

 men who hunt have long since become residents in the hunt 

 of their choice, and really hunt from home, going to their 

 businesses in town on the non-hunting days. And among 

 the crowds in some of these hunts men from every rank of 

 society were to be found not many years ago. Bankers, stock- 



