nary powers of scent, and the undeviating accuracy with which they stick to the line, the very best fox that ever wore a brush in the West of England would be far from finding himself safe before them at the end of fifty minutes.

Though Stalbridge Park, as it may well be, is a highly favorite appointment of Mr. Yeatman's hounds, we had this day a much smaller field than usual, arising from a variety of causes, but principally from the circumstance of Mr. Farquharson's meeting at Butterwick, quite within reach of all this neighbourhood. Butterwick, as many of my readers doubtless know, is one of the most celebrated fixtures that Mr. F. can give out in the whole of his enormous and overgrown extent of country, and operates of course quite as a magnet to all within the circle of its attraction. For a length of time it almost invariably held a peculiarly marked fox, that, like Colonel Wyndham's hero of the Swallows furze-field, as invariably gave them a good run, and also as invariably defeated them; and it is, I believe, more from the past deeds of this veteran Hector than anything else that the covert remains so great a favorite. Poor Butterwick Jack, however-for this was the style and title of the artist-has long since gone the way of all flesh, whether appertaining to fox, foxhound, or fox-hunter*: he has left the inheritance, nevertheless, of a good name to the present tenants of his old abode, which, as we see elsewhere is sometimes the case, not a few of them do their best to tarnish. On the

present occasion Mr. Farquharson, I heard, had a very pretty run of some six or seven miles, and killed his fox in good style and satisfactorily.

I was this day carried in an extremely pleasant and easy manner by the mare that Mr. Yeatman himself in general rides, and though the country was at times a severe one, she was on no occasion to be pounded. I must say that I am a great admirer of the Blackmoor Vale in general. Holding in almost all cases, except that of surface water, a very capital scent, it is a delightful one to cross if a man is mounted on anything like a hunter; although here, as elsewhere, a horse that will creep as well as fly is a great comfort in getting over it. He ought also to be a fair brook jumper, as there is a great deal of water to be met with; and though I maintain that it is requisite in all countries, the vale of Dorsetshire is one par excellence in which, to live as he should do with hounds, a light weight ought to mount himself some two stone above the mark.

Mr. Yeatman's pack can boast, I think, of as good a field of performers across a country as can easily be met with; and, amongst others, Mr. Place, whom I have already spoken of, Mr. Hussey of Nash Court, Mr. Buck (late M.P. for Exeter), Mr. Digby, Mr. Lagden, &c. &c., all of whom can ride well and very forward with their hounds. LordArchibald Seymour, too, I hear, turns out not unfrequently with them. During my stay I saw also, as may be supposed, some very clever and wellshaped hunters; but I saw nothing

to my mind superior to the extremely perfect horse of his class that Mr. Wyndham put me on a twelvemonth ago, and which I pronounce to be one of the most delightful animals it is possible to procure for the Blackmoor Vale country. It was much to my regret that this most amiable Gentleman was prevented being at Stock during my visit there: I assure him I have not forgotten his kindness on the occasion I have alluded to, and I hope some day or other to have an opportunity of telling him so in person.

The next day was a dies non as regarded hunting; let me then make a rapid cast forward to Thursday the 21st.

Having had the pleasure of an introduction to Mr. Harding, the proprietor and huntsman of "The Mountain Harriers," near Dorchester, in the field, on Saturday, an appointment was made for Mr. Yeatman and myself to meet them this morning at their nearest point for us in the open down, some two or three miles beyond Melcombe Park, and hardly a stone's throw from the brilliant finish I saw with Mr. Portman in 1832. The hour of fixture, therefore, found us at our post, after a very pleasant ride of eleven or twelve miles across some of the cream of the beautiful Mappowder country below (during our progress through which I had the pleasure of having pointed out to me the line of more than one good run over the on all sides adjacent fine vale), and when fairly up above beyond Armswell, &c. &c. I was once more treated with a sight of the all glorious twelve square miles that form the arena of Mr. Yeatman's sport, lying spread at our feet in all their rich

ness and magnificence. I have a panorama of this almost unequalled prospect (taken from another and more favorable point however), to which I shall ere long invite the inspection of the public, and can assure them that the scene itself is well worthy of being looked at: but here comes Mr. Harding with his little fairies, and I must say no more of it at present.

Of all the packs I ever saw in my life, "The Mountain Harriers" are unquestionably the most extraordinary; and I confess myself to be utterly ignorant of the class or genus to which they can with probability be supposed to belong. Let my readers imagine some sixteen or seventeen couples of pictures, standing not more than sixteen or seventeen inches in height, with all the richness of colour, most beautiful silkiness of skin, clearness of throat, and symmetry in make and shape (legs and feet, from what I could judge of in the field, in particular), that can be seen or looked for in any fox-hound kennel in Great Britain-some sixteen or seventeen couples in fact of most drawingroom fox-hounds in miniature, of which a lover would present his mistress with a specimen to pirouette amongst the cups upon her tea-table-they have then before them something like an idea of Mr. Harding's pack; but were they to ask me by what designation I should call them, I acknowledge very candidly that I have no idea on the subject. It is very clear that though they wear all the ears that Nature gave them, they are not a pack of Southerns; at least equally so, that they are not beagles; and Mr. Tudway would as strongly repudiate their

There

belonging to the style of hound now in his kennel (the late Yeatman quick harrier), as would my friend Mr. Harrison Carr deny that they had anything in common with the very perfect and beautiful Brookside pack of which he is, and long may he continue so, the respected and most efficient manager. they are, however, such as I have described them, in most magnificent condition (here Mr. Harding beats anything I have seen since the days of Williamson with the Duke of Buccleuch), though I am sorry to say with a good many of their number rather shouldershaken from the hills, and the very severe work they are in the habit of doing up and down their very searching sides (I believe) three days a week, ever after hunting begins, to a rather gluttonous field, in the way of getting an appetite before dinner. heard, indeed, that it was no unusual thing for Mr. Harding to be asked to draw for his fourth hare after three previous good runs! which, in my humble opinion, is a piece of folly far too absurd to be requested, and far too culpable in a Master of Hounds to comply with on any account what

ever.

I

The day's sport was an extremely satisfactory, and also an excessively indifferent, one. Our first hare took at once into some large plantations, of course full of game, and nothing more could in consequence be done with her; the second then chose to take her line to a small covert where a heap of vermin-traps were set, and some three or four couples of hounds were caught, and nearly decapitated in them; and the third, though a good and stout

one, that ran for upwards of two hours I should say, ran only after her own scut, and she was literally hunted to death in the diameter of half a mile. Here, however, was the beauty of the day's sport; and hounds certainly never stooped more determinedly (for there was a great deal of fallow), and huntsman never worked more scientifically (for there was a great deal of difficulty), than did "The Mountain" pack and Mr. Harding on this day. I am happy to record the very very clever finish. I viewed the jade steal out of a stiff furze brake, when the leading hounds were not ten yards from entering it in the opposite side, and halloo'd them on, hat in hand, without letting them get into and lose themselves in its mazes for a moment. "A fresh hare!" halloos out one sportsman.-"Are you sure that it is our hunted one?" said even Mr. Yeatman.-"6 The result will prove," said I; and in two minutes more Mr. Harding had her in his hand as stiff as a biscuit, and much to his merit be it recorded (Good God! what should I have thought years ago, when I gave every bare to my pack, of recording such a thing to the me rit of any body!), and, in strong opposition as it appeared to the wish of one currant-jelly amateur at least, threw her up to the jolly little Mountaineers, who, to the credit of their appetites, took no more time to discuss her than if they had been a lot of the most ravenous fox-hounds, from whose loins they must some time or other have sprung, however now mixed and crossed.

After witnessing the pleasing finale, which, I am bound to say, took place in presence of not one

tithe of the field who had met us in the morning, Mr. Yeatman and myself made our bows, as I now do, to the "Mountain Harriers" and their master. I cannot, however, quit the subject of the day's sport without, in the first place, saying that I have seldom, if ever, seen a better or more respectable and numerous field turn out with harriers. We had more than one ci-devant M. F. H. too to brag of amongst the number; for, in addition to the late head of the Blackmoor Vale, there was Mr. Mules, not long ago the Master of the Essex and Suffolk Border Fox-hounds. Knowing nothing of Mr. Mules as a M. F. H., and being equally ignorant of his late pack, it is of course out of my power to say anything respecting him, save and except that I heard him make, I thought, one or two very sensible remarks on the proceedings of the first part of the day, and that his appearance is that of a sportsman, though, I should say, quite heavy enough for the country he used to hunt. I heard, by the way, in the field, that he was again on the look-out for a pack and a country to hunt them in: and if this be really the case, I fear he will find but little difficulty in suiting himself; for, God knows, there are countries enough, and to spare, just now becoming vacant, that a man with a little capital of his own might convert into a perfect Elysium !!

Nothing pleases me more at any time, and nothing at any time ought to be a greater source of pleasure to mortal man, than to meet an old friend: next to this I think comes the pleasure of seeing old friends salute each other; and here again I had a high treat in

what I witnessed this day. Onehalf of the field I have spoken of, consisting of at least seventy horsemen, came to the place of appointment for the sole purpose of paying a compliment, and it was a due and deserved one, to the man who had for a series of years hunted the Down country most methodically and regularly, to give satisfaction to the warmhearted and sincere Mountain" friends that he had in it; though, as it is well known, he had never in the course of his sixteen years' experience more than four or five runs outright in it equal to those which he has experienced in the Vale country in the course of one season; it being the nature of the Down hare to run short, and cling to her hill-home and the wild fastnesses that are known to abound in those mountainous though most beautiful and picturesque regions.

Neither storm nor tempest, however, nor the certainty of a long and solitary ride home of twelve or fourteen miles in darkness and discomfort, could in any one instance either detain or deter him from keeping his appointment and doing his best to shew sport; and the tribute of respect and gratitude which I this day witnessed in the attendance of Mr. Yeatman's old allies was, I repeat, most amply due to the recollections of other days-as well to the remembrance of the unrivalled pack so widely celebrated,. as to the science, perseverance, and urbanity of their master.

Before I quit Mr. Harding, I must beg him to accept, thus publicly, my best thanks for his hospitable invitation, more than once pressed on me, to his house, as well as his very kind offer to