A HISTORY OF SURREY 



dale Lambert of Bletchingley took office, 

 which he still holds. 



Physically considered the Burstow country 

 is very unlike the two older Surrey hunts. 

 Its northern portion is vale, or very slightly 

 undulating plain, and its southern portion, 

 which includes Ashdown Forest, for the 

 most part woodland. From a riding point 

 of view the northern district of the hunt is 

 very good, and from the point of view of 

 hound work the forest portions are also good, 

 but riding in these big woodland tracts has 

 not the excitement of galloping over the 

 open, and roughly speaking the fields at the 

 southern fixtures are not a fourth the size of 

 those seen out in the vale. This same vale 

 extends from Leigh — between Reigate and 

 Dorking — on the west almost to Edenbridge, 

 the boundary with the Old Surrey being the 

 railway from Redhill to Edenbridge. South 

 from Leigh it includes the country about 

 Park Gate, Norwood Hill, Newdigate and 

 Rusper, and joins the Crawley and Horsham 

 not far from Crawley. Due east from 

 Crawley the good country extends almost to 

 the railway line between Three Bridges and 

 East Grinstead, but south of this line it is all 

 more or less woodland or forest hunting. On 

 its eastern boundary the vale extends two or 

 three miles east of the line between Oxted 

 and East Grinstead, where the Burstow 

 country marches with that of the west Kent. 

 It must be understood that the vale just de- 

 scribed is not the whole, but only the northern 

 and best part of the Burstow country, and 

 that below the Three Bridges and East 

 Grinstead railway there is another large and 

 rather wild district, extending as far south as 

 Sheffield Park and Fletching. 



That the Burstow vale is the best bit of 

 hunting country in Surrey few who know all 

 the hunts of the country will dispute. The 

 enclosures are not very large, but there is 

 now a good deal more grass than plough, 

 whatever there may have been in the past, 

 and fair jumpable fences, mostly of the bank 

 and ditch order. Both the Mole and the 

 Med way having their sources in this district, 

 and either river being formed by the union 

 of a perfect network of small brooks, there is 

 plenty of water jumping. There is a good 

 deal of wire, especially near the various houses 

 which are dotted about the district, but there 

 is very little population, except that of the 

 hamlet order, and no larger town within the 

 precincts of the vale than Horley, and no 

 manufactories. Indeed, as a matter of fact 

 there is no industrial district anywhere in the 

 county of Surrey beyond the outskirts of 

 South London, and therefore the crowds of 



foot people who go fox-hunting in many 

 northern or midland districts are unknown. 

 The coverts of the vale arc for the most 

 part small, and some of the best, South Hale 

 and Ham Roughet to wit, are very small, 

 and for enough from any other covert to 

 make a find almost a certainty of a gallop. 

 West of the Brighton Road, between Reigate 

 and Crawley, the country is neither so good 

 nor so flat as on the east. Indeed the Nor- 

 wood Hill district is, as its name implies, 

 somewhat hilly, but the uplands are insigni- 

 ficant, quite unlike the downs further north 

 and further south ; and perhaps the greatest 

 drawbacks to this part of the country are the 

 innumerable ghylls or wooded ravines. These 

 are often boggy at the bottom, while the 

 steep sides are densely overgrown with bushes. 

 Moreover the pheasant has many patrons on 

 this western border of the Burstow, and very 

 frequently a fox is not to be found. 



Like other Surrey packs of foxhounds, the 

 Burstow do not advertise, but rather shun 

 publicity, the fields, especially on Saturdays, 

 being quite as large as is convenient. For 

 the same reason it is very seldom that the 

 doings of the pack find their way into print. 

 Under these circumstances it is almost im- 

 possible to find authentic accounts of the 

 best runs the Burstow have enjoyed. One 

 exceptionally good day was in the early spring 

 of 1896, very shortly before the close of Mr. 

 Hoare's mastership. The meet was at Ling- 

 field village. Foxes for some time past had 

 been reported as lying in the thick clump in 

 the centre of Lingfield racecourse, and Mr. 

 Fowler, the resident manager of the estate, 

 had been at great pains to keep the place un- 

 disturbed. While hounds were fording the 

 brook which bounds the racecourse, and which 

 was in high flood, a fox was seen stealing 

 away. He crossed the brook rather higher 

 up ; hounds were quickly on his line, and 

 nearly all the field were hung up by wire a 

 few minutes later, so that fox and hounds ob- 

 tained a capital start. Going due west they 

 reached the Brighton line in about forty 

 minutes, ran through the paddock at Gat- 

 wick — the gates of which were open — and 

 then turning southwards held on towards 

 Crawley, where the fox was killed in a thick 

 hedgerow, having given a capital run of about 

 an hour and ten minutes, with no checks of 

 any consequence. 



Being a long way from the intended draw, 

 hounds were taken back by Copthorne Com- 

 mon into the neighbourhood of the meet, and 

 put into a covert near New Chapel Green. 

 They found a brace of foxes, and quickly 

 divided, and for quite half an hour hounds 



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