282 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. [i«9* 



Haubury demolishes a made-up gate, aud flouuders through the bog beyoud, 

 saving a fall ; Lord Willoughby jumj)s over and back, and over again, he 

 will be with his hounds to-day ; aud did he not breed the colt himself P Mr. 

 Thursby Pelham, who is riding with judgment and dash, gallops up on the 

 left. We curve left-handed, and passing between the Pillerton old and new 

 coverts reach the Stratford Road. Our leaders are content to go through the 

 gate into the road, but a high stake and Ijound out of it is a temptation too 

 great to be resisted. This gives them a lead, which proves to them to be of 

 value, the brook being ahead. Mr. Francis falls about 30 yards down the hill 

 in the next field over a bullfinch. We swing to the right aud get it an easier 

 place ; Miss Chance directly afterwards has a bad fall at the same nasty drop. 

 The brook ! Now to me a brook is a brook. It is not a bridge or a ford, or a 

 •cattle crossing. It is a brook, and must be treated as such, so I cannot admit 

 that any of those who crossed by the before-mentioned transits jumped the 

 Oxhill Brook. I looked in a despairing way right and left, set my teeth, 

 picked my place all the way down the hill, whispered to Joseph something 

 about Tom FiiT and the Whissendine, selected Jack as the boldest and surest 

 pilot, and the horror was past. Young friends, ycu have robbed us of many 

 pleasures, but there is one which we are still not denied, the momentary happy 

 glance into the abyss as we pass over it in obedience to your cheery leader- 

 ship. Mr. Barbour takes the right, Capt. PoweU the left ; Mr. Richardson 

 falls heavily as he essays to follow his compatriot ; Lord Willoughby for 

 some reason selects what seems to us the worst jjlace. " How they are 

 tumbling behind," says someone as we ride up the hill to the right of the 

 Oxliill Glebe.* What matters that to us ? I never look back. In front our 

 fortune lies, and over the hill and down the Vale to Oxhill Gorse we sweep 

 with undiminished speed. I essay to count our friends as they come in hot 

 and happy — the first happiest, the second hottest — His Lordship, Jack, 

 Mr. Savory, Captain Powell, Mrs. William Allfrey, Mr. Barbour, Mr. 

 Richardson, Mr. Crosse, Mr. Bouch ; and then arrive Captain Allfrey, Miss 

 Hanburj', Mrs. Thursby Pelham, Sir Charles Mordaiuit ; and after them a 

 long string of those who have ridden equally well, Init have not had quite 

 our good fortune of a start, and a bit, it may be, of luck. 



We ran into Oxhill Gorse with apparently two lines. Shall I dare to 

 suggest that a swing of hounds round a covert of this size might have brought 

 us nearer to a travelling fox. It appears that hounds killed a fox in the gorse, 

 and that Jack stopjied back on this account ; and here I come to a sad 

 disaster, which inakes me inclined to tear up all my copy and transmit it to 

 the flames — a disaster which it wiU take us some time to get over. Homids 

 hit off a line the other side of the road and fence. Our himtsman Avas on the 

 right. If we had had the slightest idea that he had another line, I am ready 

 to afl&rm that fifty spurs would have gone in, and five-and-twenty whips 

 would have been cracking, turning the hounds back. It spoiled almost the 

 best run of the century for most of us. A fortunate few, Mr. Campbell 

 Blair, Mr. Jolliffe, Mr. John Lowe, Mr. Lea. Rev. H. Knightley, Mr. Savory, 

 Mrs. Thursby Pelham, Miss Hanbury and Mr. Passman happened to be by 

 t'hauce in the road field, and saw what happened. On the left we, through 

 the formation of tlie ground, and a large hilly ploughed field intervening, did 

 not recognise Avhat it was. We ought, indeed, to have noticed the absence of 



* There were five loose horses iu oije field, and when Mr. R. A, Richardson caught 

 hie. he found someone else just mounting it. 



