352 REMINISCENCES OF 



going along the hollow behind us, only one field off. 

 We cut along the road, and got on the line directly, 

 ran hard down the meadows to the Welland, near 

 the angle of the river at Welham ; turned to the left 

 along the bank of the river, as far as the road which 

 goes to Medbourne station, there turned to the left 

 up to the windmill, and got on to ploughed land. 

 Here Captain Clerk turned up. The fox had been 

 coursed by a sheep-dog, and repeatedly turned. 

 This caused a long check (perhaps twenty minutes). 

 A man told me he had gone slantways across a large 

 wheat-field (which was wrong), and after holding the 

 hounds all round it, I got the line straight on again 

 in the direction we had formerly been going, but with 

 a failing scent. The hounds crossed the line without 

 acknowledging it ; " Relish" stopped back alone, and 

 made a drive down the furrow without speaking to 

 it. I put the rest on to her, and in the next field 

 they began to hunt it again, but they could not go 

 the same pace as before. They crossed the road 

 between Medbourne and Hallaton, and ran up the 

 side of the brook to the road which goes to Blaston, 

 " Graceful " being the last hound to hit off the line ; 

 she had also been the first one to speak to it in the 

 morning. It was then getting dark, and I was afraid 

 we might lose the hounds, so I stopped them at 

 5.30, having run three hours and forty-five minutes. 

 There was a holloa about two fields on at the time. 

 Mr. Piercy, the clergyman at Slawston, had come 

 out on foot when he heard the hounds. He took us 

 to his house and refreshed us, gave the horses gruel, 



