76 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



resulted from Summers Plantation to Howell, 

 two or three miles below Haverholme. Darkness 

 stopped hounds at the finish, but the line they ran 

 could not have been less than 20 miles, the distance 

 back to Belvoir was 30 miles, so that the hunt 

 horses put two days' work into one on this occasion. 

 The big fen-land drains are quite unjumpable, and 

 Frank tells how he trusted himself to the pilotage 

 of a fen-land farmer, Mr. Fred Smith, who, when 

 he came to a single plank bridge, dismounted and 

 ran over, swimming his fen-bred horse across the 

 drain. Quick as thought, the huntsman had his 

 horse in the stream at the same time, and with the 

 lead got him the right side ; but Mr. Joseph 

 Wilders, who delayed to follow, got his horse 

 stuck, and it looked at one time as though he 

 would have to leave him there. The fox was 

 killed by a solitary, outlying cottage, where lived 

 a man blessed with twelve children, and they had 

 never before seen a foxhound or scarlet coat, being 

 quite out of civilisation. 



On December 29th a good gallop of an hour 

 and fifteen minutes was enjoyed from Hose Gorse, 

 over the vale straight from Sherbrooke's Gorse, 

 crossing the Smite, running by Hickling and 

 Kinoulton through Kaye Wood to ground in a 

 tunnel under the road by Hose Lodge. For a 

 ring this was a first-rate performance, and all over 

 a charming country, which for fencing is warranted 

 to satisfy the biggest glutton that ever crossed a 

 saddle. 



The spire of Lenton church on the hill has 



