LORD MIDDLETON— 1815. 115 



The pack, having their game in view, 

 By eye and nose hotly pursue 

 Him over freshet, fence, and rill. 

 To Alscote, under fam'd Edge Hill • 

 And here, seiz'd by each gallant hound. 

 Old reynard his quietus found ! 



The fox kept dodging in and out, 

 By ringing artfully about 

 For three successive hours, not less. 

 Vexatious, hurrying, spiritless. 

 Checks two or three might intervene 

 To pose the Field, and change the scene ; 

 Provoking checks, by all agreed, 

 As ever harrass'd man or steed. 



The ground the Field had now ran o'er 

 Was twenty miles, or something more. 

 More hurly-burly in one day. 

 Few Sportsmen saw — as Sportsmen say ! 



The whole of the horses were by this time very much 

 beat, and out of a large Field there were not above six up 

 at the death. 



Mr. Mo RANT tired his favourite and famous old hunter, 

 No- Pretender, and he died shortly afterwards. 



Mr. Lawley, (now Sir Francis,) also beat his horse. 

 He jumped off his back, when he could get him no farther, 

 and left him standing in a field near Hornton, and ran on 

 foot to the place where the fox was killed. When Mr. 

 Lawley returned, he found his horse standing on the spot 

 where he had left him. 



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