284 SPORTING REMINISCENCES [1845 to 



are in the habit of wearing caps, and it is 

 sometimes almost impossible at a distance, 

 especially in a dark woodland country, accu- 

 rately to discern upon all occasions a gentle- 

 man sportsman from Jack the whipper-in. 



" The hounds, which consisted of eighteen 

 couples and a half, were the big pack, and I 

 should say, in my humble judgment, very full 

 of flesh for the time of year, especially where 

 the weight of an unshod animal must mate- 

 rially increase the annoyance of traversing, as 

 these hounds do occasionally, vast beds of 

 flints in their day's work. 



" The field was not numerous, consisting of 

 about thirty horsemen, of whom not above ten 

 or a dozen were dressed in scarlet. The hounds 

 drew several coverts to the south of Farleigh 

 House without finding, but found at last in a 

 large wood of Mr. Blunt' s, where a brace of 

 foxes were quickly on foot; the hounds di- 

 viding several times in the course of the morn- 

 ing's sport. Without entering minutely into 

 a detail of the run, suffice it to say that after 

 bellowsing about from wood to wood, round 

 and round, telegraphed from halloa to halloa 

 by countrymen for about two hours, one of 

 the foxes which had been found in the morn- 

 ing was hunted into the out -buildings of 



