I ^6 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



'J 



carried out the paternal instructions next morning, we 

 found not rats, but a litter of cubs which the vixen had 

 laid up by the fireplace, having gained access to it 

 through an old drain belonging to Mathew Prior's house 

 in olden times. Fine little fellows they were, their racing 

 each other over the joists under the floor fully accounting 

 for the disturbance of the previous night, and I recollect 

 one of them gave me no end of trouble before I got him 

 from under one of the bookshelves where he had 

 intrenched himself 



" Whether from learning, acquired in their proximity 

 to the books, they knew their way better across country we 

 never ascertained, but the Down Hall library foxes were 

 talked of for one or two seasons after that." 



Mr. Arkwright, though a first-rate horseman, always 

 came out to hunt, and not merely to ride. One foggy 

 morning, when hounds met at the King William, 

 he cleverly gave a lesson to some of his hard-riding 

 followers. Being much pestered to hunt in spite of the 

 fog, he at last said : " Well, if you can keep me in view 

 across three fields, 1 will let the hounds go." He started, 

 followed by the "field," who viewed him over two fences, 

 but at the third he dropped into the ditch, on the far side 

 and, having fairly beaten his pursuers, he awaited their 



