164 MEMORIES OF THE SHIRES 



had acquired his knowledge of hunting through 

 watching Firr when riding second-horse to him. 



Of course, every one who goes out hunting 

 considers himself sufficiently expert to criticize a 

 huntsman, and it seemed a safe thing to comment 

 adversely on a man promoted as it were from the 

 stables. Kyte I feel sure knew he was being criti- 

 cized, and therefore did not do himself justice. 

 Proof of this was that after he had received notice 

 and knew he was going, he gained confidence, and 

 showed some extraordinary good sport. 



However, I am rather anticipating events, but 

 I wanted to show some of the difficulties Capt. 

 Burns-Hartopp was faced with at the commence- 

 ment of his reign. This season, scent was seldom 

 really good, but we had many pleasant little gallops, 

 and there were few days that we returned without 

 some excitement. The Quorn had a very good run 

 on 7th December from Gartree Hill to Whissendine, 

 where they killed their fox, much to the satis- 

 faction of the much criticized Gabbitas. The 

 earlier parts of the run were of a ringing character 

 and did not promise to blossom into anything 

 better, but at Somerby the fox elected to run 

 straight, and the latter portion was very good. 



On Saturday of the following week the 

 Cottesmore had a brilliant twenty minutes from 

 a rough field near Whissendine. That good sports- 

 man and prince of heavy weights, Mr. " Cis " 

 Chaplin, had harboured a fox with such care and 

 nicety that he was able to lead us directly to the 

 exact furrow in which the outlier had curled him- 

 self up to sleep. All those who saw that gallop 

 were brimming over with joy, but probably no one 



