254 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



oar we came down to Timberscombe, and found a lane parallel 

 with, the line which hounds had taken, and we were often so 

 near them tJiat I could count the hounds as they ran " in 

 long-drawn file " close into Luckham. They went ahove the 

 village, and we only lost them for a. time when they rose the 

 hill to the we&t of Horner Green. Curioiusly enough on this 

 occasion a. second hind had come on from somewhere near 

 Cutcombe to Horner, and this hind hounds found on their 

 return from Porlook, and hunted it to the neighbo^urhood oi 

 Timberscombe!, where it was taken. On this particular day 

 the visibility — to use a new-fangled word which I do not like, 

 but whose utility is obvious — was magnificent, a, perfect pano- 

 rama, of the Devon and So'mersiet country being in evidence all 

 day long. 



From Minehead I went tO' Bath, where the season was draw- 

 ing to a close, and saw the Duke of Beaufort's and the Avon 

 Vale at work. At that particular time there were t.empora.ry 

 restrictions in the Duke's country, and I saw ho'unds stopped 

 twice in an hour when hunting from a Biddeston meet, when 

 foxes were particularly numerous. I think two or three were 

 killed thati day, but there was a fine hunt in the early af tier- 

 noon, and in point of facti the pack were having the good sports 

 which seems to be their regular fare. The fields, even in their 

 best country, were not sO' large as I had expected, and I found 

 it difficult tOi count a. hundred horses, all told. No doubt in the 

 spring of 1920 there were nothing like so' many people following 

 hounds regularly as there had been in pro-war days, for 

 oonntry people were feeling the results of high taxation and 

 the very high co'st, of living. I noticed this wherever I went, 

 both in 1920, and in the following year, and though there has 

 been perhaps some improvement in this respect since that time, 

 I imagine it will be long enough before we ever see the very big 

 fields which were tO' be found in many meets during the first 

 decade of thei present century. 



With regard to' fields 1 may state that, for many years I 

 have been in the hahit of counting roughly thei number of 

 people out. I got this trick of counting owing toi an argument 

 as to the number out on a certiain day, after a day's hunting, 

 and I have continued the practice almost mechanically, just as 

 I count hounds whenever I have a chance in the course of a 



