SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



near Havant in Sussex), and before that with 

 the Wirral Harriers in Cheshire. 



The kennels of the Old Surrey are now 

 at Coulsdon, between Smitham Bottom and 

 Redhill, close to the old Brighton road, and 

 the pack meet on Tuesdays and Saturdays. 

 Not long ago there were three fixtures every 

 week — Monday, Thursday and Saturday. In 

 all probability the curtailment of the country, 

 owing to the spreading of south London, has 

 brought about the reduction in the number 

 of hunting days, for now there is no hunting 

 north of Croydon, nor indeed of the line of 

 hills which extends eastwards from Croydon 

 into Kent. In some localities, much further 

 south, building has been on so great a scale 

 during the last quarter of a century that 

 hunting has become practically impossible. 

 In the Caterham Valley for example houses 

 have multiplied tenfold within the present 

 generation. Croydon advances further and 

 further south every year, and all over the 

 Old Surrey country ' eligible building sites ' 

 are offered to the enterprising builder. For- 

 tunately there are too many ' eligible sites,' 

 and even allowing for increase in population 

 many years must elapse before half of them 

 can be taken up. What Surrey may come 

 to in the future it is hard to say, but there is 

 always room for hope in the fact that build- 

 ing schemes for the most part cling to the 

 railways, and thus there remain plenty of 

 areas where fox hunting is still practicable 

 within twenty miles of the centre of London. 



The Old Surrey possesses two kinds of 

 country, hill and vale, of which the vale is 

 far the best. The hill country lies all along 

 the northern part of the hunt, and is very 

 thoroughly wooded. Big woods, small woods 

 and chains of woods clothe the tops of the 

 hills, and in some places these same hills are 

 remarkably steep, and indeed dangerous to 

 ride up and down. Leading is often re- 

 sorted to ; but a majority of the field, know- 

 ing the country well, know all practicable 

 places, and use them when hounds go up or 

 down an almost perpendicular hill. Hounds 

 on a good scenting day run very hard in this 

 hill country, and often it is no easy matter to 

 keep them in view, first because of the numer- 

 ous coverts, and secondly because of the steep- 

 ness of the hills. In fact, the ground is more 

 favourable for hounds than horses, though 

 hounds are often lamed by the flints. There 

 is little or no jumping in this part of the Old 

 Surrey territory, but as it forms the Saturday 

 country it is well patronized, fields being 

 much larger on the last day of the week than 

 they are on the Tuesday. The meets, which 

 are not advertised, extend from the Banstead 



and Chipstead district on the west away to 

 Addington and beyond in Kent, and all 

 through this tract of country the sport is of 

 much the same character. Then again be- 

 tween Woldingham and Oxted there is a 

 large area of coverts, with a chain of woods 

 near Tatsfield, which lies more in the centre 

 of the hunt. 



The vale portions of the Old Surrey coun- 

 try lie east of the Brighton main line and 

 south of the Merstham kennel, and extend 

 beyond Oxted on the east. On its southern 

 side there is another range of hills, extending 

 from Redhill by Bletchingley to Godstone, 

 and south of this again is the best bit in the 

 whole hunt, spoken of as ' below the hill.' 

 There is more grass than ploughed land in 

 the vale, or rather vales, of the Old Surrey 

 country, and the fences are formidable 

 enough, being for the most part thick and 

 well grown, and placed on a low bank with 

 a ditch always at one side and generally on 

 both. Just inside the Burstow border — the 

 railway line from Redhill to Edenbridge 

 forms the boundary between the hunts — there 

 is a really good piece of country, which would 

 not disgrace a hunt of far higher pretensions. 

 In wet weather the vale rides somewhat deep, 

 and at parts of its western end floods are not 

 unknown ; but it carries a good scent, and if 

 the ground is nicely soft hounds run almost 

 as well in covert as they do in the open. 

 About Nutfield and Bletchingley the builder 

 is very active, but further east the country is 

 wild and thinly populated, and the * Charts ' 

 at the south-eastern corner of the hunt might 

 be a hundred miles from town instead of 

 about five and twenty, so desolate and lonely 

 are these great forest wastes of beech and oak. 

 In all, the available hunting country of the 

 Old Surrey Hunt extends about fourteen 

 miles from north to south, and about sixteen 

 from east to west. It is bounded on the 

 west by the country of the Surrey Union, on 

 the south by that of the Burstow, and on 

 the east by the West Kent country, while on 

 the north the ever extending suburbs or 

 London do not admit of hunting. The best 

 centres are Caterham, Reigate and Oxted, 

 from each of which places other packs can 

 be visited. 



The Surrey Union country is of greater 

 extent than that of the Old Surrey. The 

 Hunt can claim an existence of over a 

 hundred years, dating as it does from 1799. 

 A portion of the Garth country, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Chertsey, is actually the property 

 of the Surrey Union, and is only lent to the 

 neighbouring hunt. When the Hon. Francis 

 Scott was master of the Surrey Union (1866- 



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