208 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



hunting were really numerous. My idea was to breakfast at 

 a certain hotel, and I went there once, and only once; the 

 hotel was very good, but my new friends were so hospitable 

 that there was no need to go there again. And although 

 many of the regular habitues were not countrymen, but rather 

 Londoners living in the country, I have never known so well- 

 behaved a field. Over- riding was literally unknown, and 

 no one ever dreamt of riding over growing crops. Over- 

 riding — sometimes of a very bad character — I have seen in 

 every hunt I have been in except the Burstow, and I always 

 attributed some portion of the good sport I saw with this pack 

 to the fact that hounds always had plenty of room, and 

 were never hustled beyond their noses. 



The Queen's I saw occasionally about seven-and-twenty 

 years ago, and about the same time the Old Berkeley and the 

 Garth, and this reminds me that a correspondent has asked 

 me how near to London I have actually seen a fox hunted. I 

 imagine that there are hundreds who have hunted regularly 

 with some of the packs I have late-ly mentioned who could 

 answer this question better than I can, for I have only hunted 

 a Kttle, at odd times, with the packs which are nearest to 

 London. However, I may state that I have seen the Surrey 

 Union run over the Epsom racecourse at the conclusion of a 

 very fair hunt . The fox was found somewhere near Boxhill, but 

 I do not remember the name of the covert, and hounds hunted 

 at no great pace, and with a number of twists and turns to 

 the neighbourhood of Woodcote Park, and then rather faster 

 by the Warren, reaching the course at the City and Suburban 

 starting post. They then cut across to Tattenham Corner and 

 went into Nork Park, where I think the fox found shelter in 

 a drain, but I am not quit^i sure as to what the exact finish 

 v,^as. The hunt took place shortly after Mr. F. G. Colman 

 assumed the Mastership. I suppose Nork Park is sixteen miles 

 from town by road, and I saw the same pack quite as near town 

 a year or two later when they hunted a fox out of Princes' 

 Woods to Earweill Court, which is adjacent to Claygate, and 

 less than three miles from Surbiton. I remember to have heard 

 of the same pack being at Worcester Park a few years earlier, 

 but I never saw them there, though I havei seen beag'les all over 

 the district in question and in the country — now almost entirely 



