Part 11

Hind-hunting is at its best in November and December. The hinds are difficult to kill; they are then stronger than stags. It is for this reason that I record what must be considered to be a notable performance of the Devon and Somerset from the Heathpoult on December 3rd. The fixture was for 10 a.m. You want all the daylight there is to kill a stout hind. There was a thick fog and they had to wait some time before it was possible to hunt. At last Mr. Morland Greig gave the word, and kennelling the pack, tufters were taken to Slowley. The run began almost at once, and the chase was nearly all over an enclosed country. The pace was often good, and the hunt lasted for two hours. But the feature of it was that we never got the pack, and that the whole was carried on by the huntsman with four or five couples of hounds. The hind escaped, but not till nearly four o’clock. A week later, in thick fog and driving rain, Mr. E. A. V. Stanley and the Quantock hounds drove a hind straight and fast from the same covert, and killed her near the pier-head at Minehead. Taking the weather into consideration this was a noteworthy gallop.

Two memorable runs have taken place with foxhounds during the past month. The week from December 5th to December 10th was perhaps the best of the season, and there was sport in every country. The Quorn was stopped by fog and hindered by absence of scent on the two days in the week—Monday, Friday—they were in the best country, but as we shall see, made up for it on Saturday. It is not the least remarkable feature of these waves of sport that they affect, about the same time, countries of different soils, climate, and contour, often widely separated by distance.

What I think may be called the two historic hunts of the month took place in Rutlandshire with the Cottesmore, and in Somersetshire with the West Somerset, on December 5th and 7th, while on the latter date the Pytchley had a good run, and on the Friday several packs, including the North Cotswold, enjoyed sport better than ordinary.

The Cottesmore met at Tilton on the first Tuesday in December. There were some preliminary chases which came to nothing, but served to show that there was a scent. The fox of the day was holloa’d away on the side of Skeffington Wood nearest the road. The hounds, when they hit the line, swung left-handed over the grass fields between the covert and the road. At Brown’s Wood, Thatcher, no doubt fearing a change, held the pack round outside. He was right, his fox had gone on across the road, but there was another line, and part of the pack were away. However, the huntsman and his division worked out the line over the road and into the fields beyond, the hounds clearly gaining confidence as they went. The whipper-in, having stopped the main body smartly, arrived in the nick of time with the rest of the pack. The hounds now settled to work, and improving the pace as they went, ran to Rolleston and on to Noseley, held on still to Glooston. At this, point the fox began to turn, and the Ram’s Head covert was reached and left behind. Thence they dipped down to the East Norton road, which the fox ran for some distance, and then turned left-handed as though for Launde Park Wood. By this time many good horses were stopping, for the pace and the severity of the country, which is all up and down—some of the hills are very steep—told on them. In the early part of the run the followers had been favoured by convenient gates, but now the pace improved, and it was not easy to skirt and keep one’s place, yet the fences, though fairly practicable, took much of the remaining steel out of the horses. When hounds turned up to Prior’s Coppice they began to run for blood. Bending towards Owston Wood the field thinned down, and horses began to stop everywhere. In the meantime hounds ran from scent to view, and rolled their fox over in the open close to Cheseldyne Copse. The run lasted one hour and forty minutes, covered fourteen miles as hounds ran, but as the course was a wide curve the point is of course not a long one. The run is remarkable for the wise tactics of the huntsman at the beginning, for extraordinary excellence of the country crossed, as well as for the steadiness of hounds in a well-foxed country, and the condition they showed in hunting for so long a time, and fairly running into their fox at last. That the pace was fast is shown by the number of horses in the best-mounted field in England that stopped by the way.

Into close connection with this run we may bring the other great hunt of the month. Although the country was very different the chase was not dissimilar. Indeed, before we can admit a run to the list of great chases it must fulfil certain conditions, of which the principal is that it must be fast and continuous. If hounds are merely hunting more or less for two or three hours at a slow pace, we often have an interesting day’s sport, but we have not had a great run. I should like to add that it must be after a single fox, but that would exclude so many famous hunts, but if the fox that started is the fox killed, then, no doubt, the triumph is all the greater. The West Somerset run was after one fox, the time was an hour and thirty-five minutes, the pace was good, the distance covered as hounds ran was fifteen miles, and the point rather over seven.

The fox was found on Sir Walter Trevelyan’s property and on the shooting in the occupation of Mr. Townsend Marryat, of Treborough Lodge, who had been keeping the Roadwater coverts quiet for the Hunt.

The fixture was the “Valiant Soldier,” Roadwater—a well-known anglers’ house—on Wednesday, December 7th. The fox was afoot in ten minutes after the start, and it was about twenty minutes more before he was fairly away. Once he was headed, but he resolutely swung round to make his point. Then the pace was very fast, and indeed there was need to gallop to keep on terms with the pack in this rather difficult country. The fox’s point was up wind for a certain well-known covert, but this he failed to reach, turning away within sight. Judging from the pace hounds had brought him along he had no choice but to turn or die. This move saved him for the time, for he gained ground and reached Sir John Ferguson Davie’s covert at Bittescombe Manor, within the borders of the Tiverton Hunt. Finding, however, no refuge there the fox turned back and made for Clatworthy Wood. Hounds were now gaining. He was too hot to stay in the covert and he broke again. The pack turned him in a big field, and catching a view rolled him over. The fox was easily identified as the one that started, as he was curiously marked.

As a run it was a hound chase, for the pack were not touched from find to finish. They cast themselves when necessary and twice picked up the line on the roads. They killed him unaided, as although the Master saw the kill he could not get to them, nor could the huntsman. Every hound was up—a great performance in a rough country. The mask was given to Miss Luttrell and will find a place at Dunster Castle, rightly enough, since the hounds are lent to the country by Mr. G. F. Luttrell.

While on the subject of historic runs news reaches me of a run with Sir John Amory’s staghounds which is in every respect a record, at all events, since the days of the Rev. Jack Russell. The distance, the pace and the line of country taken by the deer were all alike remarkable and interesting. This wonderful stag-hunt took place on Saturday, December 9th. The fixture was Chawleigh, in the Eggesford country, so long known to foxhunters as Lord Portsmouth’s. Seven deer were roused; a young stag was chosen. The hounds were laid on and the stag began by making a wide ring. He then ran by rather devious ways to the River Taw, which stag and hounds crossed. Those who have seen this river in flood will know that the ordinary fords are then impassable. Some miles had to be covered to reach a bridge and return towards the place where hounds were last seen. Luckily the stag and hounds had not vanished into space. The stag probably meant to return to the moors, but on reaching the railway he was blanched by a passing train, and this gave the field time to come up. The quarry was now driven clean out of his country, and he ran straight forward, heading for Torrington, near to which place they took him at 4.15, having been running for four hours and a half. The hounds were left at Eggesford, and the Master, Mr. Ian Amory, his brother, and Mr. de Las Casas made their way back to Tiverton which they reached about midnight.

In illustration of the fact that hounds can run in distant countries on the same day, the Quorn and Cottesmore both had a scent on the 9th, though the latter were hindered by fog. The Quorn were in that section of their country in which Bunny Park is a favourite covert. This part of the country has some plough, but grass and arable alike often carry a good scent, and on Saturday, 9th, hounds ran brilliantly over both alike. Scent held all day, but the fox was saved in the first run by a timely rabbit-hole, in the second by the darkening twilight of a short winter day. The Cottesmore, again, had a run on Tuesday, 12th, which would have been noteworthy had it been possible to see it, but fog caused many of the best followers to miss the fun. I think a great run should, especially in the grass countries, have its glory and pleasure divided between the hounds and the horses. In that most delightful country, Lord Bathurst’s division of the V.W.H., a very noteworthy gallop came off on November 24th. The point was the best I have to record this month, being nine miles in a straight line, with a deviation making up three more perhaps. Thus it will be observed that the run was unusually straight. This country is somewhat heavy going in wet weather, when it holds the best scent. Somerford Common supplied the fox. The pack started at once and settled to run. There was thenceforth small opportunity to make up a bad start. There was a short hesitation at Flisbridge, then they went on through Oaksey Wood, crossed into the Duke of Beaufort’s country, and arrived at Redmorton, where few saw the end. The fox saved his life here, as the covert was full of foxes.

The North Cotswold bitches are giving their master a brilliant season to finish with. Nor can we imagine a greater pleasure to any one than to see a pack one has built up one’s self gaining triumph after triumph. I cannot help thinking that the fact that this pack kill their foxes is one reason for their success.

Hounds that are successful become so full of confidence in their huntsman and in themselves, that they make light of difficulties that would daunt others. It looks as if Belvoir blood needed a quick huntsman to bring out its best qualities, for I have heard people say that they were not so fond of the strains in provincial countries. But facts are stubborn things, and the Duke’s kennel seems to be the true foundation on which to build a fast and killing pack.

Of the other packs hunting in fashionable countries, Mr. Fernie’s, the Atherstone and the Pytchley have all enjoyed good sport during December without, so far, any run above their usual level, which, be it remembered, is very high. It takes a very excellent gallop indeed to be considered out of the usual run of these countries.

Sometimes I think it possible that farmers may wonder whether the deeds of hunting people are in proportion to their professions of gratitude. At all events, the Warwickshire Hunt are doing their best to manifest the reality of their regard. They have voluntarily taxed themselves 10s. or £1 a-piece, according to their means, one-half of the fund so collected going to the “Royal Agricultural Benevolent Society,” and the other half to the relief of farmers in distress within the limits of the Warwickshire Hunt country. This scheme will, it may be hoped, find imitators in other countries. This and the Hunt Servants’ Benevolent Fund are the charities which no hunting people ought to neglect.

Rumours die hard, and the report that Mr. Hubert Wilson is going to resign the Cheshire is still going about. The fact is that he is willing to go on, and the country most anxious to keep him. The sport he has shown and his popularity, together with that of his huntsman Champion, should promise and secure a long reign. Frequent changes of mastership are a disadvantage not only to the individual country, but to hunting at large. So far there are but two countries likely to be vacant, and I hear that there are many applications for the North Cotswold, the chance of possessing that incomparable pack of bitches being no doubt a great attraction. The other pack is the Ledbury, which it is expected Mr. Carnaby Forster will resign before long, and I fear that the state of his health makes the report more than probable. He will leave a fine pack and a tradition of good sport behind.

HUNTING IN YORKSHIRE—A CAPITAL SUGGESTION.

The most important event in connection with hunting which has taken place in Yorkshire since the season begun—perhaps the most important event in the hunting history of the century so far—was the cap which was taken at the Habton fixture of the Sinnington Hunt on December 7th for the Hunt Servants’ Benefit Society; for if Lord Helmsley’s example is followed, as followed no doubt it will be and should be, that deserving Society will receive such an access of income as will enable it to fulfil all the duties of a benefit society in a manner which its founders in their most sanguine moments never dreamed of. Lord Helmsley’s happy inspiration met with a cordial response from those who threw in their lot with his hounds on the 7th, and, as many anticipated, annual subscribers to the Society answered cheerily to the courteous appeal of Mr. Alfred Pearson, who stood at the gate with the cap; the result was that a sum of £21 was collected. Ever prompt in anything which furthers the interests of hunting and those who hunt, Captain Lane Fox announced that a cap would be taken at Tockwith for the same purpose on the 15th, and though at the time of writing no account is to hand of what took place, there is no doubt that the response from the Bramham Moor field will be found as generous as that of their Sinnington friends. If this happy idea of Lord Helmsley’s is taken up all over the country and becomes an annual institution, as there is no reason that it should not, it would mean an access of income to the Hunt Servants’ Benefit Society of something between £4,000 and £5,000, and yet none would feel one penny the worse for the trifle he had given, whilst he would enjoy his sport all the better for knowing that he had done something to assist a deserving body of men to whom he owed so much.

The Bramham Moor have had a succession of good sport. On November 18th they had a capital day from Hutton Hall. They did little with their first fox, but with number two they had a brilliant forty-five minutes over the cream of the Ainsty country. He was an outlying fox, found in a turnip field outside Robin Hood’s Wood, and they raced him by Healaugh, Duce Wood, Askham Grange, and Ainsty Spring, and rolled him over in Bilbrough Park. A travelling fox was viewed as they were breaking this one up, and they ran him hard by Catterton, and then round by Askham Richard, and on to Healaugh, where they rolled him over.

On the 24th they had another good day. Finding a fox in White Syke Whin they ran him by Hutton Thorns, Rufforth and Rufforth Whin, and a ring round by the Harrogate railway, nearly to Hutton Thorns again, and up to Rufforth Village, where they checked. Hitting off the line they hunted on over the Boroughbridge road and into Red House Wood, where they marked their fox to ground.

They had another good Friday on December 8th, when they met at Wighill Village. Curiously enough, like the Hutton Hall day, it was a day of outlying foxes. A fox was viewed as hounds were moving off to try Shire Oaks, and for an hour hounds ran him very cheerily by Duce Wood, New Buildings and Wighill Avenue, over the Thorp Arch road, and on to the Carrs, below Esedike. Thence they ran a very similar ring by Shire Oaks and back by Wighill Avenue and Village, to the banks of the Wharfe, where they marked him to ground. Then came a fine burst of twenty minutes from Shire Oaks, by Tadcaster and Catterton Spring to Healaugh Church, near which the fox got to ground just in front of hounds. The day was brought to a conclusion by a gallop with another outlying fox, who jumped up in front of hounds at Angram, and they hunted him cheerily by Askham Whin, Collier Hagg, Healaugh and Normans to Askham Whin, where he beat them.

The Sinnington had a capital day from Habton Village on December 7th. They found their first fox in Skelton Whin, and had a good hour’s run with him by Riseborough and back through Skelton Whin up to Little Barugh, whence they ran a ring back to the whin and killed. They had barely eaten their fox when another went away, and they ran him at a good pace by Riseborough Hill and Normanby, and past Hobground House to Brawby Bridge, where a check took place. The fox was thought to have gone to ground, but he had gone through, and it was probably him that they killed when they went back to Riseborough.

SPANIEL TRIALS IN THE VALE OF NEATH.

Wales seems to be popular ground for the decision of spaniel trials, for since the Sporting Spaniel Society instituted working tests for “the handy man” of the varieties of dogs which are used in field sports in the autumn of 1898 the Principality has been visited some four or five times. In 1904 Sir Watkin Wynn’s unrivalled coverts in Wynnstay Park were placed at the service of the Club, and a very successful meeting was the result, but for the gathering which was held early in December the Vale of Neath was revisited, Mr. A. T. Williams, the President of the promoting Society, having invited the Committee to decide the competitions on his shooting at Gilfach, only a little over a mile from the flourishing town of Neath. It was to be regretted that the entry was so meagre, only half-a-dozen owners supporting the stakes; for not since the trials were started in Mr. Arkwright’s park near Chesterfield had better ground been visited, although no fault could be found with that at Ynisy Gerwn, on the other side of the valley, when the Welsh spaniels of Mr. A. T. Williams, Mr. W. H. David, and other local breeders, made so bold a show at one of the largest supported meetings of the series. The poor entry, by the way, was not caused by lack of interest in the work of the Club, but, for one reason and another, such men as Mr. Winton Smith, Mr. J. Alexander, Mr. Charles Watts, and Mr. J. P. Gardiner, whose spaniels had gained high honours at other trials, were prevented from sending dogs which had been broken and thoroughly trained with a view to competing. Then Mrs. H. D. Greene, the wife of the member for Shrewsbury, who is a great admirer of the Welsh spaniel, had to withdraw her entries because one of her brace was shot only the day before the trials when being put through her final facings. That was a great disappointment to the Shropshire lady, who had hoped to do well with the representatives of the Longmynd kennel. The conditions of the competitions were the same as usual, the spaniels being shot over in the customary sporting manner, while the principal points which were considered by the judges were scenting power, keenness, perseverance, obedience, freedom from chase, dropping to shot, style, method of beating and working to the gun, whether in covert, hedgerow, or in the open. In the single stakes the spaniels were also expected to retrieve at command, tenderly, quickly, and right up to the hand. Additional points, of course, were given for dropping to hand and shot, standing to game and flushing it at command.

The trials were worked on very sporting lines, and Mr. Williams and his keeper had certainly spared no trouble in preparing the shoot for the meeting, rides having been cut through gorse and bracken, while on the low-lying ground—which could not be worked because of the heavy rain on the first day—the earths had been stopped. The coverts swarmed with rabbits, and at the top of the hill on open fields a few hares were started from their forms and gave the shooters employment as well as providing capital tests for the spaniels.

As had been the case at all recent meetings, the chief honours were taken by the spaniels of Mr. C. C. Eversfield, a Sussex owner, and the best dog at the trials was Velox Powder, a liver-and-white dog of the old-fashioned English springer type, bred by Sir Thomas Boughey, and about as useful a dog in the field as any man could have. He took a positive delight in working rough ground to his owner’s command; he was absolutely steady to both shot and wing, while as to chasing a legged or running rabbit, nothing seemed to be further from his thoughts. He quite outshone all his kennel mates, and in addition to winning the chief single dog stake, he was awarded the dog championship, that which was offered for bitches being taken by Denne Ballistite, a daughter of Velox Powder. Brace and novice honours also went to Mr. Eversfield’s spaniels; in fact, the only other single dog at the meeting which showed anything like form was Mr. Arkwright’s Beni Hassan, an alert young spaniel of the Sussex type, which had been bred by Lord Tredegar. She was very nicely handled by Gaunt, who is so well known in connection with the Sutton pointers at the spring and autumn trials. The pick of the teams were the Welsh spaniels of Mr. A. T. Williams, and no finer work was seen during the meeting than that which they put in on the second day, when set the task of beating a patch of young gorse. They faced it unflinchingly, the English team sent from Hampshire by Mr. Warwick having to be almost forced into it, and even then it was all too evident that their task was distasteful. In rough covert it was once more shown that Welsh spaniels are unrivalled.

Further trials were held under the management of the Spaniel Club on Mr. Fydell Rowley’s estate near St. Neots in Christmas week. They promised to be a great success, judged by the good entry which was received by Mr. John Cowell.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOWS.