84 Memoir of Tom Smith, 



these old hounds would have held the line and 

 not have gone beyond the scent ; or perhaps 

 the check might have been caused by a flock 

 of sheep having been on the doT\Ti before the 

 hounds got there. In conclusion, he suggested 

 that they might make a wider cast to the out- 

 side of the down; but Sebright, utterly out 

 of spirits, shook his head and went moodily 

 home. These hounds only killed seven foxes 

 during the fourteen weeks that they staid in 

 the Hambledon country, although Mr. Osbal- 

 deston occasionally assisted in hunting them. 

 On these occasions, when a check occurred, 

 the pack was divided, and two casts made 

 right and left at the same time. 



A simpler case than this !N'ew Forest one 

 was recently submitted to Mr. Smith by a 

 gentleman who has coverts in the Vine Hunt. 

 His keepers had assured him that when the 

 Yine hounds were running a fox through one 

 of his coverts, they saw the hunted one snatch 

 up a cock plieasa*iit, and though they hallooed. 



