1845.] OF HAMPSHIRE. 155 



gave me the following account of a season's 

 sport he had some years back : — 



" His hounds went out seventeen days with- 

 out killing a fox. ' First,' said the old man, 

 ' it was my fault, then it was the hounds' 

 fault, then they were too fat, then they were 

 too thin ; at last,' continued William, ' one 

 morning they all fled from my horse's heels, 

 like mad things ; the moment they got to the 

 covert found their fox directly, and killed 

 eighteen out of the next nineteen foxes ! The 

 fact was, the weather changed, and the hounds 

 had not been slack before for want of blood, 

 but for want of what is to them the greatest 

 pleasure of their lives, a medium through which 

 they could exercise their powers of smelling? Let 

 any man, who is a judge of hunting, observe 

 the difference of hounds drawing for a fox 

 over good and over bad land. But I must 

 hold hard here. Old William James, how- 

 ever, is right to the very letter. 



" On the morning on which we had the fine 

 run I have before spoken of, we were invited 

 to breakfast with Mr. Nunez, who Mr. Nunez, 

 was for five years master of the Hambledon 

 hounds. This gentleman was keeping his 

 Christmas in the old English style, sitting 

 down every day eighteen at dinner — all 



