304 WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. 



The hounds, this season, hunted about 100 days, and 

 killed and accounted for 80 foxes. 1 



1 The anxiety, perseverance, and resolution of a huntsman, when 

 lie liad been tlirown out and lost the hounds, now occurs to us. One 

 morning', a gentleman farmer, who resides not far from the cover, 

 heard the hounds challeng^e in the Wood. He was not out that day, 

 but he was too good a Sportsman to mar the enjoyment of others, by 

 heading a fox into the mouth of the pack. Fair play is good sport, said 

 he to himself, as he pulled up his horse aiul stood stock still by the 

 hedge side, with his eye steadily directed to the point he expected 

 reynard would make, if he came out of the wood on that side. In a 

 few minutes a loud crash of the hounds told him the fox was away ; 

 he soon caught sight of him, ami he passed, without taking any notice, 

 across the same field, nearly at the speed of a greyhound. The hounds 

 were then but a field behind him, and away they went at a tremendous 

 pace. There was not a single horseman within sight of the pack. In 

 a few minutes Bill Barrow came up, alone. ' Have you seen the fox, 

 Sir ?' said he. ' Yes.' ' And the hounds ?' 'Yes' Who was with them ? 

 ' Nobody' was the reply. ' Which way are they gone? ' I see them now, 

 said the Yeoman. Where? Where? asked Bill, eagerly. Don't you 

 see them driving up the hill yonder, as fast as legs can carry them? I 

 do, I do, answered Bill, and he instantly dashed away, at his best 

 pace, point-blank for the spot. The sun shone out at the moment, 

 on that side of the hill, and they could discern the hounds plain 

 enough not to be mistaken ; they were about two miles ahead. Our 

 informant kept his place, and in a few minutes he saw Barrow mount 

 the same hill ; he had evidently gained ground upon the hounds, and, 

 as he was told, got up to them soon afterwards. To the other horsemen, 

 who made any inquiiy, a similar answer was given. Barrow struck 

 ofi^ for the hill in a direct line ; he first took a moderate hedge, and 

 next dashed through a strong willow fence and cleared a brook on 

 the other side. I thought, said the Yeoman, that no man or horse 

 would dare to attempt such a leap, and expected to see them either 

 fall backward, or tumble headlong into the brook ; they cleared both 

 with apparent ease. As the willows were too high to top, and too 

 strong, as I thought, to give way, I went to see how they had made 

 their way through them. Two of the willoi^s, right and left, much 

 thicker than my wrist, had been twisted nearly off by the force of the 

 horse, and he had dropped fairly on his feet, on the opposite side, a 

 great distance from the take-up, without a stumble. The nag Bill 

 rode that day was what I should call a little one, but he Avas a rare 

 bit of stuff, and I never saw one of his size able to live with him, across 

 such a country. His strength, courage, and bottom, carried him over 

 every thing that came in his way. 



