1891] A MERRY BEGINNING. 215 



SEASON 1891-92. 

 From Lord Willoughby cle Brake's diary : 



First day of ciibhnnting at Walton Wood, on September 15tli. Capital 

 show of foxes. Killed fonr. 



October 22iul, IdJicote. — A fine day's sport. Killed six foxes.* 



Killed dnring twenty-nine days' cnblmnting thirty -nine foxes, and ran ten 

 to gronnd. 



A capital cubhiinting season, and there was a good scent throughoiit it. 



November 2nd, The Kennels. — First day of regular hnnting. 



** Rusticus Expectans " in the Field -. 



The knight's to the mountain his bugle to wind ! 



Monday , November 2nd, the Warwickshire honnds were advertised to meet 

 at the kennels, and a perfect hnnting morning it was. with rather too mnch bine 

 mist al)ont Edge Hills perhaps. A fnll gathering of tlie clans and classes, 

 and many joyons, cheery greetings on the village green of Little Kineton ; 

 bnt the cavalcade, as it passed iis on its way to draw, looked, we thought, a 

 little solemn for the opening day, Ijut perhaps this appearance was quite 

 suitable for a country like the Warwickshire, where hunting is a serious 

 pastime, and to be conducted in not too high or frivolous a spirit. It may be 

 that some of the riders were a little nervous ; that the pigskin did not seem 

 such a safe and easy seat as a basket in a grouse box, a cainpstool on board a 

 yacht, or an armchair with a newspaper in an office. It may be that there 

 were visions of blind ditches, and a too eager horse ; or a stiff rail to be 

 faced on a not too perfect five-year-old. It may be that when the Chadshunt 

 Osiers at the bottom of the Water Lane were drawn blank, that some sighed 

 a sigh of relief, for a short and further respite allowed them from active and 

 perhaps hazardous competition ; but by the time we had reached Gaydon Hill 

 everyone seemed more at home in the saddle, and ready for the mimic fray. 

 A fox went away from the spinney, Init was headed in the Banbury Road, 

 and swung round the Vicarage Farm, and on towards Itehington Holt. A 

 stiffish flight of rails, with a liroadish ditch, downhill, gave confidence to all 

 who had it ; and a feeling of thankfulness rose in many a breast to 

 find that after all there was some nerve left, even in an old 'un. From 

 Itehington Holt Mr. Ashton, M.F.H., who seems to note more that is going 

 on out hunting than about twenty other ordinary sportsmen, gave intelli- 

 gence of a holloa away towards Itcliington. Lord Willoughby very quickly 

 had the hounds on his line; they sunk the hill in about three fields, and crossing 

 the Harbury Road, ran rather prettily by Old Town to Ham Bridge, where 

 grief commenced, a brave disciple of ^sculapius " falling into his hat," as 

 the local saying goes, and a In-ave general taking his first downer for the season 

 with the greatest sangfroid and aploml). After tliis the Watergall, which 

 nearly all the field negotiated in safety ; and a turn to the right by the rail- 

 way arch landed us in Watergall Covert. Thence one or two fresh, clean foxes 

 left, but Lord Willoughby stiick to the hunted one, which went away as if for 



* This was probably the largest number of foxes ever killed by the Warwickshire 

 Hounds on one day. 



