216 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



after they had been running for twenty minutes 

 unattended. There was scarcely time for horses 

 to catch their wind before the line was cleverly 

 recovered by a young dog-hound Drastic, who had 

 been "walked" by Mr. James Rudkin of Hanby. 

 He was a bit the quickest getting through the 

 fence, and was half-way across the next field before 

 his voice was heard. Three fields farther on a 

 sharp right-hand turn took the hunt to the left of 

 Cant's Thorns, and then a beaten fox was viewed 

 only a field ahead of the pack. Unfortunately an 

 open drain in the bridle -road midway between 

 Kettleby and Wartnaby saved his brush. Time of 

 this brilliant gallop, forty-five minutes. Rough 

 wintry weather stopped hunting operations in 

 March, but on the 3rd of this month, when fifty 

 couple were exercising, they met Major Amcotts, Mr. 

 E. Lubbock, Mr. F. Crawley, the Rev. J. P. Sea- 

 brooke, and a few more, who declared it was fit to 

 hunt, and hunt they did, finding in the Rectory 

 Covert running fast to Jericho where they killed. 



A sad sad day for the Belvoir Hunt was Sunday, 

 March 4th, when the sixth Duke of Rutland passed 

 peacefully away after holding the mastership for 

 thirty seasons. The heart was out of the season 

 after that, and the hunt staff wore crape bands round 

 their left arms to the finish. 



The number of hunting days this season was 

 109, foxes killed 83, hounds were stopped hunting 

 40 days for frost, 8 days for death. 



