274 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AXD PRAIRIE. 



AND MORE GRAFTON. 



A very pretty hunting run of forty-five minutes and a kill in 

 the open was the outcome of the Grafton Monday (Dec. 12). 

 To pull down a fox in that time of itself proves more than 

 " fair pace." Yet " a quick hunting run" must be the defini- 

 tion, rather than a " gallop " or a " burst," as we are given to 

 employ the terms. It was, from a very justifiable point of 

 view, as unlikely a morning for scent as has been dealt us this 

 season. The ground was half frozen, and wind and weather- 

 glass alike unsteady. Yet hounds ran hard in covert, and at 

 times carried quite a head outside. To drive to covert was 

 about as safe as going by train on a cheap track in Western 

 America. Both down-hill and up, it paid to take the grass 

 siding in preference to the road — and the damp breeze nearly 

 froze your fingers to the ribbons. 



Maidston was the meet (where the village boys had made 

 beautiful slides on every yard of meadow) : Seawell Wood was 

 the draw — down the wind, as it blew at the moment. Two or 

 three foxes fled at the far end, and together the pack settled on 

 a pleasant and easy line to Litchborough, left that village j ust 

 on the right, and worked their way (with one trifling check) 

 across the valley for Stowe Wood. Skirting the lower end of 

 this, they topped the hill overlooking Everdon — with again 

 three foxes before them. It seemed to me an instinct — I 

 suppose, though I need scarcely hesitate to employ the only 

 proper term — it was real talent on the part of the huDtsman 

 that he now took the pack off a new line and carried it forward 

 to strike the true one. And then came all the fun of the fair 

 — caused mainly by the little Everdon brook — about two yards 

 of water and two more of sloping rat-holey banks. The turf 

 Avas greasy, and horses — naturally timid at water, as is in proper 

 keeping with an education in the Midlands — were even more 

 nervous and helpless than usual. One here and one there slipped 

 in, a couple fell back, a dozeu got over, and the rest remained 



