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THE NEW FOREST.

MR. EDITOR,

I extract the following from the letter of a friend now residing at Southampton, and should you have a spare corner in your Magazine, perhaps you will give publicity to it.

24th April, 1837.

Yours,

UNCLE TOBY.

"We are having great "to do's" in the New Forest with the hounds kept by the New Forest Keepers.-They are the talbot or blood hound; the pace at which they go is truly astonishing. They have already taken five or six stags (red deer). On Tuesday last, the 18th of April, we had an extraordinary day, taking two stags; the first ran exactly half an hour, the second carried it on for two hours! The pace was terrible. Mr. Assheton Smith was out, and he declared he had never seen so many good horses tired. Mr. A. Smith purchased the horse ridden by the huntsman (Dod) who had decidedly the best of both runs. The pack consists of ten and a half couples. Mr. Assheton Smith informed me after the taking of the second stag, that he was so delighted at the pace and stoutness shown by two or three of the dog hounds, that he should try a cross between them and some of his best fox-hound bitches. Should he make the experiment, it will create quite a sensation in the sporting world, especially among masters of foxhounds."

HERTS-A DAY'S SPORT WITH MR. DELME RADCLIFFE'S
HOUNDS.

March 17.-Met at the kennel-drew several covers about Lutonpark blank-when at two o'clock, Mr. Delmé Radcliffe determined, if possible, to find a fox upon so nice a feeling day, trotted off for Kensworth gorse about four miles distant-a sure find belonging to that most excellent sportman, Mr. Hamilton, a cover of about twenty acres, in which every hound was in a short time busy--a slight whimper, and then a hound or two spoke, and right merrily they rattled him in the gorse. "Gone away," and soon every hound was at him, running with a burning scent through Deadmonday, skirting Beechwood to Ravensdell, through it, and across the valley to the Ashridge-covers through them, and across the park from one corner to the other, quite flying across Berkhampstead-common, and half round it; running down close to the town, then up the hill to Berkhampstead-castle, through the pleasure grounds, and away by North Church, close at their fox, which was viewed for some distance by the forward riders, not two fields a head of the hounds. About two miles beyond North Church, reynard being thus sorely pressed, faced the people working on the

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railroad, and crossed the canal-every hound dashing in and going away for Tring-park, carrying such a head, that it required fresh horses

to live with them.

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A bridge here let the whole field over the water, and it was all plain sailing up to Tring-park; but the horses had had enough, and it was bellows to mend with most of them. fast was the pace, that only six got into Tring-park with the hounds-and here we missed Boxall (the huntsman). The first whip now hunted the hounds; but not much hunting was wanted. "Forward!" was the cry, and over the park they raced, dashing into the Beech-coverts beyond-and here Mr. Radcliffe on Cricketer, having gone well with his hounds up to this point, was, as he himself remarks, "bowled out," and stood still, but he had no chance of getting a second-innings; for his hounds running through Halton-wood, dropped the hill, running merrily to within 3 miles of Aylesbury, where there was an inclination to the left, and leaving Weston Turville on their right, they ran by Wendover, St. Leonards, and Lee, and lost their fox in some farm buildings near Hampden. The whipper-in, having gone well during the whole run on a little chesnut thorough-bred horse, for the last mile or two, borrowed a farmer's horse, who kindly offered it to him. I must candidly confess, that I myself was unable to live to the end of his unparalleled run, but I think it but fair to record the names of those who were more fortunate: Hon. E. H. Grimston, E. T. Daniell, Esq., M. Evans, Esq., Mr. Hayward of St. Albans, Mr. Goddard of Park Street, and James Simkins, the first whipper-in. This run, which could not have been less than twenty-eight miles, being nearly twenty miles from point to point; was done in two hours and thirty-five minutes, without a single check. Boxall, the huntsman, having been furnished by Mr. Brown, of Tring, with a fresh horse, followed the line, and came up where they had lost. The head which these hounds carried from end to end, must have been the admiration of every one; and when I mention that Boxall got every hound but one home to their kennel the same night, it sufficiently proves to what perfection of condition he had brought them. But, like everything else, hunting has its alloy; and I am sorry to say, that two horses, which went this magnificent run, have since died.

SIR,

Your obedient servant,

A HERTS YEOMAN.

WISHING that your pages should be the correct medium of all sporting matters, I should feel obliged by your giving insertion to the following account of a match for 25 guineas at the Bedford spring meeting, the 30th March, between myself and Mr. Higgins: the last mile with two

4ft. 6in. hurdles, each riding his own horse, and carrying 14st. 12lbs. (without weighing the bridles). My little horse "Trump" was the winner, by nine or ten lengths I am told; though he was sore from thorns and altogether unprepared. It is also said that he was the only horse that cleared the last hurdle.

Mr. Higgins's horse was named "Conrad," and a chesnut also: not a black, as stated in the Northampton papers. The match between myself and Mr. Higgins was made on the course; his horse had been previously prepared, and entered for the Oakley stakes. Seeing that steeple chasing was never more in vogue, I wish to suggest through your pages that the weights for the great stakes should be 15st., which would give some of the welters a chance, and not exclude the celebrated Capt. Becher, who would only have to carry the additional weight. Accept my best thanks for your present of the second edition of my poor brother-in-law's life, which is magnificently bound and got up. In reviewing the past, who has more reason than myself to exclaim “Omnia vanitas!" Yours,

Ampthill Park, Ampthill, 18th April, 1837.

JOHN HESKETH LETHBRIDGE,

Varieties.

THE CHASE, THE TURF, AND THE ROAD.-BY NIMROD. [Though we presume that every subscriber to the New Sporting Magazine has bought a copy of Nimrod's admirable book on the Chase, the Turf, and the Road, we cannot resist the temptation of enriching our columns with a few extracts from the first article-the Chase. Even should most of our readers have seen them before, they will bear a re-perusal.]

"In no one instance has the modern varied from the ancient system of hunting more than in the hour of meeting in the morning. With our forefathers, when the roost cock sounded his clarion, they sounded their horn; throwing off the pack so soon as they could distinguish a stile from a gate, or, in other words, so soon as they could see to ride to the hounds. Then it was that the hare was hunted to her form by the.trail, and the fox to his kennel by the drag. Slow as this system would now be deemed, it was a grand treat to the real sportsman. What, in the language of the chase, is called "the tender-nosed hound," had an opportunity of displaying himself to the inexpressible delight of his master; and to the field—that is, to the sportsmen who joined in the diversion—the pleasures of the day were enhanced by the moments of anticipation produced by the drag. As the scent grew warmer, the certainty of finding was confirmed; the music of the pack increased; and, the game being up, away went the hounds "in a crash." Both trail and drag are at present but little thought of; hounds merely draw over ground most likely to hold the game they are in quest of, and thus,

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in a great measure, rely upon chance for coming across it; for if a challenge be heard, it can only be inferred that a fox has been on foot in the night-the scent being seldom sufficient to enable the hound to carry it up to his kennel. Advantages, however, as far as sport is concerned, attend the present hour of meeting in the field. Independently of the misery of riding many miles in the dark, which sportsmen of the early part of the last century were obliged to do, the game, when it is now aroused, is in a better state to encounter the great speed of modern hounds, having had time to digest the food which it has partaken of in the night, previously to its being stirred. But it is only since the great increase of hares and foxes that the aid of the trail and drag could be dispensed with, without the frequent recurrence of blank days, which now seldom happen.

Compared with the luxurious ease with which the modern sportsman is conveyed to the field-either lolling in his chaise and four, or galloping along, at the rate of twenty miles an hour, on a hundred-guinea hack-the situation of his predecessor was all but distressing. In proportion to the distance he had to ride by starlight, were his hours of rest broken in upon; and, exclusive of the time which that operation might consume, another serious one was to be provided for. This was, the filling his hair with powder and pomatum until it could hold no more, and forming it into a well-turned knot, or club, as it was called, by his valet, which cost commonly a good hour's work. The protecting mud-boot, the cantering hack, the second horse in the field, were luxuries unknown to him; and his well-soiled buckskins, and brown-topped boots, would have cut an indifferent figure in the presence of a modern connoisseur at a Leicestershire cover-side. Notwithstanding all this, however, we are inclined strongly to suspect that, out of a given number of gentlemen taking the field with hounds, the proportion of really scientific sportsmen may have been in favour of the olden times.

Four packs of fox-hounds divide the far famed county of Leicester: namely, Lord Forester's, late the Duke of Rutland's; the Earl of Lonsdale's; the Atherstone, late the Earl of Lichfield's, afterwards Sir John Gerard's, but now Mr. Applewaite's; and what were so long called the Quorn, now Mr. Errington's but lately Sir Harry Goodricke's, who built a kennel for them at Thrussington, half way between Melton and Leicester, which situation is more in the centre of the country than Quorn, where they had previously been kept from the period of Mr. Meynell's hunting it. The county of Leicester, however, does not of itself find room for all these packs: parts of Rutlandshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, are also included in their beat.

Our readers are doubtless aware, that such portion of a county as is hunted by any one pack of hounds is technically called their country; and of all the countries in the world, the Quorn certainly bears the bell. This superiority arises from the peculiar nature of the soil-which, being for the most part good, is highly favourable to scent; the immense proportion of grazing land in comparison with that which is ploughed; and the great size of the enclosures, many of which run to from sixty to one hundred acres each. The rarity of large woods in this part of Leicestershire is also a great recommendation to it as a hunting country; while it abounds in furze-brakes, or gorse-covers, as they are termed, for the rent of which a considerable annual sum (nearly £1000) is paid to the owners. Independently of these, what are termed artificial covers are made with

stakes set at a certain height from the ground for the grass to grow over them ; but they are very inferior to the others, being difficult for hounds to draw. The subscription to the Quorn hounds has varied from £2000. to £4000. per annum.* but Sir Harry Goodricke bore the whole expense of them himself.

One of the most striking features in the aspect of the chosen regions of English fox-hunting is the formidable ox-fence-rendered necessary by the difficulty of keeping fatting cattle within their pastures, during the season of the œstrus, or gadfly. It consists of-first, a wide ditch, then a sturdy black-thorn hedge, and at least two yards beyond that a strong rail, about four feet high; to clear all these obstacles, from whichever side they may be approached, is evidently a great exertion for a horse. What is termed the bulfinch fence (still more common in these districts), is a quickset hedge of perhaps fifty years growth, with a ditch on one side or the other, and so high and strong that horses cannot clear it. The sportsman, however, charging this at nearly full speed, succeeds in getting to the other side, when the bushes close after him and his horse, and there is no more appearance of their transit than if a bird had hopped through. Horses unaccustomed to these fences, seldom face them well at first; perhaps nothing short of the emulation which animates their riders, and the courage created in the noble animals themselves by the presence of hounds, would induce them to face such things at all. Timber fences, such as rails, stiles, and gates, but particularly rails, are oftener leaped in Leicestershire than in any other country, by reason of the great height which the quickset fences attain—a height which, in some places, nothing but a bird can surmount; brooks also abound, amongst the widest of which are the Whissendine; the Smite, or Belvoir; one under Stanton Wood; another under Norton by Galby; and a fifth near Woodwell Head.

At the conclusion of the last century, Mr. Meynell, was master of these Quorn hounds, since which time they have been in the hands of the following conspicuous sportsmen :-Earl Sefton, the late Lord Foley, Mr. Thomas Assheton Smith, Sir Bellingham Graham, Mr. Osbaldeston, Lord Southampton, the late Sir Harry Goodricke, Sir Francis Holyoake Goodricke, and Mr. Errington, the second son of Sir Thomas Stanley, Bart. of Cheshire, who now has them.

Before Leicestershire acquired its present ascendant rank in the scale of sport, it was hunted by what were called the Noel hounds, which afterwards became the property of the Lonsdale family; but, in those early days, this country wore, to the eye of a sportsman, a very different appearance from that whicih now presents. A great portion of the land was uninclosed; neither was there a tenth part of the furze-covers with which it now abounds. The foxes, on the other hand, were wilder then than they are at present, and runs of longer duration than those of late times were, on an average the result. Game was not so plentiful as it now is : consequently foxes had farther to travel for their usual provender, which trained them for runs of extraordinary length; and they were wilder, from the wilder nature of the country in which they were bred. It was, however reserved to Mr. Meynell to render famous the county of Leicester as a hunting country.

* Sir Bellingham Graham alone received the last-named sum. That now given to Mr. Errington is about £2,500.

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