THE EIGHTH DUKE 



particular fox we view is a fresh one, as the follow- 

 ing incident recorded in the diary shows : " I saw 

 the fox within five or six minutes of its death jump 

 a high bush, and gallop, and look clean, and would 

 have sworn it a fresh fox, but it ran three or four 

 rings round me as if I was lunging it by a string 

 round its neck, which made me observe to Mr. E. 

 Estcourt : ' I could swear it a fresh fox, but it must 

 be from its running a beaten one.' " 



On October the 7th the Duke left home at 6 a.m. 

 to meet the hounds. After a hard morning's work 

 he started off, as he himself says, to ride to Dane- 

 bury, " an awful ride over the downs, and by a 

 miracle, the last eight miles in a fog and dark, 

 reached Danebury at 9.30 p.m." Not a bad day's 

 work, it must be acknowledged. 



The Duke was a keen observer of the working 

 of his hounds, and delighted to record any special 

 instance of sagacity they showed. This same 

 autumn they were in hot pursuit of a cub. " A 

 woman told me he was barely out of view, up to 

 the wall of the verge, on to which Bachelor, who 

 was leading, jumped. The others flashed over. 

 He stood at the top waving his stern, then popped 

 back into the road and took up the scent just as 

 Fleecer, this year's entry, came back and spoke to it. 

 Just then I viewed the fox within eighty yards, in 

 the wood, unable to jump the wall, not four feet 

 high." On another occasion a fox ran into the out- 

 skirts of a village, and hounds were unable to mark 



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