WITH MR FERNIE 335 



round to Keythorpe village, and crossed the valley 

 once more — a turn which let in nine-tenths of the 

 field, which had consisted of very few indeed at 

 Keythorpe Lodge. Another half- hour had thus 

 been consumed, and now we had a muddling hunt 

 for yet another hour, the fox beating hounds by 

 the tunnel near Allexton. 



Regardful of the best part of a score of miles before 

 me, I now turned homewards, but I might almost as 

 well have stayed, for finding (surely not fresh finding) 

 at Allexton they ran straight back to Holt Wood, 

 and killed there. 



It was about a year later (thirteen months, to be 

 exact) that I had another good gallop with these 

 hounds. The first fox from Watson's Gorse was lost 

 at Medbourne village. The second, however, from 

 the same gorse, showed more enterprise, and crossed 

 the Welland. This, I read somewhere recently, was 

 once jumped by one of the heroes of the past, but 

 none of a large Leicestershire field looked at it on 

 this occasion, and being familiar with the way, I 

 had the pleasure of acting pilot across the bridge 

 and two railways into Northamptonshire. We met 

 hounds crossing the Carlton road, and they drove 

 along over the ridge and furrow and big fences to 

 the left of Wilbarton New Covert towards the 

 Brampton bottom. Here the fox bent right-handed, 

 and came up amongst the unfortunately much- wired 

 fences above Wilford's. Here also I came into a field 

 to see a fine sheep cast on its back, and had sore 

 misgivings that it was my duty to jump off and lend 

 a hand. But " the pace was too good to enquire," and 

 I left him to possible foot spectators. Short of Five 

 Lanes they bent to the right once more, and hounds 



