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HUNTING IN DEVONSHIRE.
15
Dartmoor country has been
hunted from time out of mind,
and at the beginning of the cen-
tury Mr. Pode, of Slade Hall,
was hunting both hares and foxes,
over a district which comprised a
good part of what is now the
Dartmoor and South Devon coun-
tries. To give an understandable
account of these two countries is
well-nigh impossible, but with the
Dartmoor the names of Mr. J. C.
Butteel and Mr. Charles Trelawny
will ever be honourably associ-
ated. Mr. Butteel succeeded Mr.
Pode in 1826, and having con-
siderably modernised the estab-
lishment, showed excellent sport.
He was a rare judge of a hound,
and a fine horseman ; in fact, no
one could beat him either across
the moor or over the enclosed
country. Horsemanship, indeed,
has ever been a characteristic of
the family, the feminine members
whereof have excelled in the
saddle, while Lady Elizabeth
Bulteel gave proof of her practical
interest in the hunt by presenting
the pack to the late Mr. Charles
Trelawny when that gentleman
came forward to hunt the country
after the death of Mr. Bulteel.
The name of Trelawny is, as
most people know, celebrated in
song : —
41 And shall Trelawny die ?
And thirty thousand Comishmen shall
know the reason why."
This song has often been supposed
to be a very old one, but it was
really written in comparatively
modern times by the Rev. Mr.
Hawker, the very eccentric Vicar
of Morwinstow. For no fewer than
thirty-four years did Mr. Trelawny
hunt the Dartmoor country, bear-
ing all the expense himself, and it
was my good fortune to be out
with the pack towards the close
of the master's career, that is to
say, in the late " sixties " and
early " seventies." On one occa-
sion, I remember, the hounds ran Buy Suminat
as if tied to their fox for about a
couple of hours over the moor,
leaving horses far behind. It
should be mentioned that soon
after Mr. Trelawny took over the
country the kennel was strength-
ened by an importation from the
North Warwickshire hounds,
when Mr. Shaw Hellier removed
from Warwickshire to the South-
wold country. When Mr. Trelawny
resigned, in the spring of 1874, ne
retained all his old interest in the
country, and lent his hounds to a
committee. The new master was
Mr. Alexander Munro, who mar-
ried the elder daughter of Mr.
Charles Symonds, the once well-
known dealer of Oxford, and he
hunted the country until 1877, m
which year Admiral Parker, a
right good sportsman, took his
place, and bought of Mr. Trelawny
the entire pack, which was de-
scended from the famous Lambton
blood, and which up to 1889,
when Admiral Parker was suc-
ceeded by Mr. Cory ton, had never
been broken up.
In the neighbouring South
Devon country the name of Mr.
Westlake is held in affectionate
remembrance, for he was an ex-
cellent master and a most keen
sportsman. Sir Walter Carew
may perhaps be said to have
started the South Devon hounds
about the year 1820, when he
borrowed part of Mr. Pode's
country, in which he found much
amusement to lie for something
like a quarter of a century, and
then, as part of the country was
unhunted, Sir Henry Seale started
a pack, obtaining some hounds
from the Bel voir and other ken-
nels, and hunted round about
Dartmouth, a very hilly country
which now resounds only to the
music of the Britannia Beagles, a
pack which often attracts quite
i6
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
[January
a big field. Before Sir Henry
Seale, however, became an
M.F.H., Mr. King, who became
master of the Hambledon Hounds
in Hampshire, hunted the South
Devon country. Mr. Westlake
resigning what may be called the
parent country in 1876, was suc-
ceeded by Mr. Ross, a rather
eccentric person ; but he was very
fond of hunting. His mastership
was not, however, quite a success ;
and Mr. Tanner, who succeeded
him, lacked experience, so Mr.
Ross ruled for a second time, and
after that the South Devon Suminat Nasal Spray coun-
try was chopped and changed
about in the most bewildering
manner.
In the time of Parson Russell
and Mr. Templer, of Stover, foxes
were not too well preserved, or
the latter gentleman would not
have kept so many foxes in cap-
tivity — the " Bold Dragoon " was
hunted about thirty-four times in
his career. There then came a
period during which a wave of true
sport passed over the county of
Devon, but now, at least in some
parts of the county, a certain
amount of luke-warmness would
appear to have re-asserted itself.
It is true that every effort has been
made to extend the arena of fox-
hunting, and it was not until
comparatively recently that the
Sidmouth district knew what hunt-
ing was since the brothers Cock-
burn gave up their hounds many
years ago. The Mid-Devon and
East Devon have pushed hunting
wider afield than formerly, and are
meeting with fair success, but in
parts of the county the fox supply
runs rather short.
Between riding to hounds in a
country where fields run large, Suminat 50
and there are flying fences to be
encountered, and riding to hounds
in Devonshire, there is a most
marvellous difference. Of course
on Exmoor (most of which by the
way is in Somersetshire), Dart-
moor and the open country
generally, one has to contend not
with fences, but with hills, val-
leys, and combes, and they present
difficulties of their own -when
hounds really run. In the enclosed
parts, however, things are very
different. To begin with, some
parts of Devon cannot be crossed
by man and horse, no matter how
good either or both may be. I
remember having a very fast hour
and five minutes with the late
Lord Portsmouth's Hounds. They
found in a big covert not far from
Eggesford ; the fox never dwelt
in covert for five minutes; there
was a halloa, and Lord Ports-
mouth, clad in scarlet coat and
felt hat, led the way, Charles
Littleworth, his huntsman, who
had a marvellous knack of getting
away from the most unlikely places,