CHARLES DAVIS 65 



to run away from the field. This most certainly he did, for 

 they ran away from the field on several occasions in tlie 

 Harrow country, and I have experience of tlieir doinf:^ this 

 in the Bracknell country. 



' His hounds appeared to love him, and one of the prettiest 

 parts of the day was, when a check occurred, to see them 

 fly to his call, and all the pack cluster round his horse, and 

 he take them to a holloa and [)lant them on the line of scent. 

 I think this control was due in a great measure to his system 

 of entering the young hounds in the forest in October. The 

 deer were nearly always taken without injury, and many 

 were hunted for years, and knew how to take care of them- 

 selves.' 



Mr. Cordery first knew Charles Davis in 1835. He used 

 to see him out with Sir John Cope's foxhounds— for Davis 

 loved fox-hunting — and also with the buckhounds. ' I thought 

 him,' he writes, ' as good as any one I ever saw on a saddle. 

 Used to ride over a country very easy, and never seemed 

 to distress his horse. He liked a clean, well-bred horse, and 

 was master of him and his men and his field and his hounds. 

 Kespected by every one, his word was law, his hounds he 

 loved, and woe be to the man who rode over one. 



'Mr. Davis's hounds were not quite so high as yours. 

 Bitches very neat, and smaller, I think. Perhaps your 

 present pack goes a little faster than they did, that is be- 

 cause the country is so much more open now. Aldershot 

 Common all open at that time, Wellington College and 

 Broad Moor the only two houses. On each of these commons 

 you could see hounds a mile off. Have been hunting all day 

 and only have seen a man snipe-shooting. Very open and 

 wild at that time ; much troubled with bogs where there were 

 no rides. Mr. Davis did not ride fast at his fences ; good 

 trot or canter he would ease his horse to.' 



Catching your own again, as some one called hunting 



