160 MEMORIES OF THE SHIRES 



for words. Hounds race on, their maddening notes 

 rising and falling in perfect harmony. How they 

 twist and turn, but ever driving onwards ! What 

 fun it is ! Back over the brook we go in the 

 direction of Wild's Lodge, swing left-handed across 

 the turnpike, and check for a second by Wheathill 

 Spinney. Another left-handed turn, and the pack 

 are into the spinney near the Punchbowl. Thirty 

 minutes of real, unalloyed pleasure, and then the 

 best of it is over." 



Gillson was a good huntsman, but was a great 

 sufferer from indigestion, and I think with better 

 health would have made a great name for himself. 

 It was, however, in the kennel that he excelled, 

 and I have always considered that his pack were 

 the fittest I had ever seen. Some one has said 

 that more foxes are killed in the kennel than in the 

 field. This is what I wrote on the day of the 

 above run. " Gillson has got together as smart 

 a pack of bitches as anyone can wish to see — full 

 of muscle and the gloss of health shining through 

 their skins. No pack that I have seen carry a 

 better head ; they have plenty of music, and can 

 hunt a bad scent as well as race when it is good." 



Season 1897-1898 



There was not very much sport in November, 

 but the Quorn had a very good hunting run at 

 the end of the month. An outlier was found near 

 Ratcliffe village, and when he went to ground 

 within a few fields, it seemed as if that chapter 

 was closed ; but Harry and his terriers turning up, 

 he was speedily evicted. There was a very poor 



