250 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



The season was nearly over, and he was so' greatly oocupied 

 with, war work that he had only been out twice. In facti, all 

 he was certain about was the number of foxes killed, that 

 the pack had more than once got away from the handful of 

 riders present, and that the greater part of the day had been 

 spent in looking for the lost hounds. And, by the way, it is 

 quite possible that many more foxes were killed than the 

 attenuated staffs had any idea of, for a veteran, who pre- 

 serves buti doeis not hunt, told me one day that in a spinney 

 on his property, on a day following a visit from the local pack, 

 he had found the carcases of two cubs which had been killed 

 and left by hounds. 



During the la&t two or three seasons I have seen more than 

 one pack for the first time, and renewed acquaintance with 

 others. The first place I went to was Minehead, early in 1919, 

 nearly twenty years having elapsed since my previous visit. 

 The Devon and Somerset were hunting hinds, and the Mine- 

 head harriers were devoting their energies entirely to foxes, 

 having been given permission to hunt a small district, part of 

 which belongs to the West Somerset Hunt and part to the 

 Exmoor. The district in question includes the North Hill — 

 from Minehead to Selworthy or thereabouts — and the Grabbist 

 Hill from the neighbourhood of Dunster to somewhere about 

 Wootton Courtnay. Not a big country by any means, but 

 there are wooded combes all round Grabbist, and any nvimber 

 of foxes. Mr Bligh was in command, as he had been twenty 

 years before, but in the days of my earlier visit I had 

 only seen his pack hunt hares, whereas now foxes were their 

 quarry. How long they had been chev3dng the more noble 

 beast I do not remember, but they had killed seven foxes 

 before I saw them at. work, and I think they killed eeven more 

 while I was at Minehead. I followed on foot, as did many 

 others, but there was a fair field of riders as well, including 

 several ladies who were very regular in their attendance. But 

 for the foot followers of foxhounds I never discovered any 

 place wliich is anything like so good as the Grabbist Hill. A 

 fox seemed to be always present in whichever covert hounds 

 drew first, and as a rule he crossed the hill soon after he was 

 found, and ran through a covert or two on the slopes of the 

 other side, and then recrossed the top again. Thia top is sound 



