Scarlet, 265 



they not only " streamed away more," but uniformly 

 gave a better account of their foxes, be the fences big 

 or little. Thirteen hundred and forty-four brace were 

 brought to hand by Jem in his twenty-one seasons ; 

 but the eighty-seven brace of his 1842-43 season were 

 never equalled, as far too many rabbit traps got set in 

 later years, among the short oaks and hazels of Cran- 

 bourne Chase, which was once the great Dorsetshire 

 nursery. Foxes were so rife in the country at one 

 time, in Ben Jennings's (who came to Mr. Farquharson, 

 at the beginning of his second season, from Mr. Con- 

 yers) and Sol Baker's day, that seven were dug out 

 of one hole at Downey Cliff, and of the four which 

 were alive, one was quietly turned out on Blandford 

 race-course next day, and was killed after going for 

 forty minutes, racing pace, within three miles of the 

 old rock. Mr. Nichol had always a very high opinion 

 of Ben, and he used to say that if it had pleased Pro- 

 vidence to make a fox of him originally, he would 

 have picked any other man in England to be hunted 



by. 



There was a good deal of New^ Forest ^^ Parquhar- 

 Justice blood in the kennel during the sons Kennel 

 first part of the thirty seasons for which Blood. 

 Ben was in office, as although Justice, and his son 

 Jasper had been sold by Mr. Wyndham to Mr. Nichol 

 the year before Mr. Farquharson bought the pack, the 

 latter sent bitches to both. Justice especially, for some 

 seasons, and the puppies, which were generally yellow 

 and white, turned out remarkably well. When Tread- 

 well came in '37, the dog hounds were generally twenty- 

 four inches, and he brought with him thirty-two couple 

 of Mr. Codrington's old hounds, which he had hunted 

 one season for Mr. Hall in the Blackmore Vale. Re- 

 veller was the best of the pack, but he was not big 

 enough to breed from, and the effort to keep up the 

 Collier sort was principally made through Richmond. 

 However, from some peculiarity of climate, Eastbury 



