Lewes's
Mr. T. P.
Northern Counties.
Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire.
Tetcott.
Tracy's, Mr. Courtenay.
Wharfedale.
Ynysfor.
DRAG.-Lowest, perhaps, in the scale of hunting comes the drag, though lowest only in the sense of not needing a wild or semiwild animal for its object of pursuit. In strictly orthodox circles a drag hunt is always mentioned with somewhat bated breath, but at the same time it is by no means an amusement to be despised. Its followers do not claim for it that it is a high form of sport, while it is an excellent school for riding, and does not make so great demands on the forbearance of farmers or occupiers of land as either stag, fox, or hare hunting. The line can be laid just where the Master pleases; the horses need never enter a corn or clover field, or where there are root crops; and if a man objects to his land being ridden over, his wish can be respected without difficulty.
To those who go out for the sake of a gallop, a drag hunt is of short duration, and makes but small inroads on the day's business.
The drag, however, is by no means a modern institution, for there is every reason to believe that in the times of the Stuarts trail scents were very common, and, as we know from Mr. Hoare's History of Newmarket, there was in Charles II.'s reign "a plate at Woodstock given to hounds running a trail scent over four miles," for which any gentleman might put in a hound; while at the same place in 1682 there was al buck and trail scent for hounds. The famous match between the hounds of Mr.