WAR TIME AND AFTER. 261 



for after going down tlie valley for a quarter of an hour they 

 turned up again, and following the banks of the river Severn 

 ■they hunted on steadily for another hour, finally killing their 

 fox in the open close to Dolwen Station, on the Cambrian 

 Railway. The latter part of the hunt was most exciting, for 

 the fox was const-antly viewed close in front, but hounds 

 were going down wind, and probably the sinking fox had 

 a failing scent. This was a great fox and a great hunt, and 

 in the last hour a five-mile point was made. Many of 

 Major Davies' pack are very light-coloured hounds and the 

 value of this colour on the sides of the hills is most pro- 

 nounced, while the dark hounds are not only difiicult to see, 

 but when some distance away almost impossible to distinguish 

 by sight. And in this hunt the pack were hardly lost sight 

 of for a moment, for they only ran through one or 

 two little spinnies, and while they were on the sides of the 

 Moliart hills the field were able to keep close with them — 

 a couple of hundred feet or £0 below — on a good bridle path. 



Two other great hunts I was lucky enough to see something 

 of with these hounds in November of 1921. The first was 

 a, moorland hunt from the hanging covert at Old Hall, and 

 hounds made a nine-mile point and killed their fox in the open 

 near the pass on the road which leads from Shrewsbury to 

 Aberystwyth at the end of three hours. This run was referred! 

 toi in the Field shortly after it took place, and so was the great 

 hunt which took place ten days later. The hunt last mentioned 

 was, T think, the longest I ever took part in, for it began 

 at half-past ten, and did not finish until hounds were stopped 

 in almost black darkness some time between half-past five and 

 six. The fox was found, lying out on Tan-y-Raalt Hill, but 

 practically all the hunting was in the lower country, and quite 

 the beat part of it was over a fine riding line of pasture 

 land in the Trannon Valley. In the early part of the day two 

 points of four and one of five miles were made, and hounds 

 went so fast at first that they got well in front. They came 

 back to the Tan-y-Rallt Hill, hov/ever, after having been four 

 miles away from it, and then making a further five mile point 

 put their fox to ground on Dolgwineth Farm, about half-past 

 two, this being perhaps the best part of the hunt, aa hounds 

 though never faltering were not going quite so fast, and the 



