2-982-540 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

First Meet of the Season of the Cotswold Hounds, 1858. Fox hunting in rural England. Engraving from a sketch by Mr. G. Goddard. 'These hounds, under the mastership of Clego Colmore, Esq., commenced their season on Monday, November 1st, at Dowdeswell Wood, situated about three miles out of Cheltenham, on the London road. The meet was numerously attended by the elite of Cheltenham...the hounds were thrown into cover, and, finding [the scent] immediately...they rattled him up through the wood, and "Charley," after two or three futile attempts to break cover, stole away in the direction of Eton...but the scent was too good with such a pack at his heels, and he was run into, "in the open," close by the field in which the meet took place, after a very sharp forty-five minutes; and was broken up in view of the entire range of carriages which thronged the road, an occurrence which is not likely to take place again for the next century. The master then proceeded to draw for a second fox, which was soon found: after hustling him for about an hour they pulled him down in Peckham Scrubs'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.