256 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



But I have been running wide — skirting, in fact — and to go 

 back to' my original fo^x, I saw soime nice sport with the 

 Avon Vale, when hunting on foot. I was rather lucky perhaps,, 

 for on three days out of eight or nine I was able to see nearly 

 all that, hounds did, while on the other days they went away 

 v/ith a fox and I saw little more of them. The best hunt 

 I saw was after a meet at Chippenham. Hounds found cloise 

 to the town, and for two hours the fox zigzagged, crossing 

 and recro&sing the main road leading to Devizes. I viewed 

 him at the start and then again when I had to wait until 

 hounds came over the road, and after an hour and a half they 

 reached the neighbourhood of the George Inn, Sandy Lane (a 

 frequent meet when the Duke of Beauforti was hunting the 

 whole co'iintry). There the fox got intoi a spinney in Spye 

 Park, and the field were drawn up, so that he had plenty of 

 room. But he would not break for long enough, and after 

 half an hour, during which hounds had to work amidsti a dense 

 cover of blackberry bushes, he was so beaten that he was 

 caught before he had gone 200 yards. I have a. pad of that 

 fox, because having viewed him twice and seen him killed I 

 felti that I had a vest.ed interest in him. 



On another day when hounds met at the Rocks I had several 

 ladies from the hotiel in Bath with me. We went by tram 

 to Batheaston, walked up toi the Kockg and saw about a couple 

 of hours of pretty hunting in the combes of that, neighbour- 

 hood. There were several foxes running about, and towards 

 twoi o'clock one left the district with the greater part of the 

 pack in pursuit. But some four couples' were left, hunting 

 another fox, and with these hounds we had a great time. 

 They could not travel at any pace, but kept hunting steadily, 

 and were often close to their fox. Indeed we viewed him 

 more than once, not far in front, and were anticipating a kill, 

 when he slipped into a rabbit hole and our sport was over. 

 The Duke's, as everyone knows, are a very grand pack of big 

 hounds, who combine quality with massive substance and im- 

 mense bone, and if the Avon Vale are not quite so big they 

 are alsio^ a fine pack, and have some beautiful bitches. Some 

 of these were sent tO' Peterborough that year, but they were 

 far too fat, so fat indeed that they excited ridicule rather 

 than admiration, for their good points were entirely hidden by fat. 



