A WEEK WITH SIX PACKS 533 



have it, struck the line of one of the foxes now fully twenty 

 minutes ahead. Yet — curious to say — in spite of the hurricane 

 there was no failure of scent. Had we been on terms, I am 

 open to believe there might have been quite a good run ! It is 

 impossible to suppose that any body-scent could have remained 

 amid the boisterous gusts : so it must have been purely a pad- 

 scent that guided hounds, and that even now they could puzzle 

 out without much difficulty. Upon this they took us along — at 

 times almost prettily — by the left of Shawell Village nearly to 

 Swinford. The gravelpit-earths, where Mr. Gilbert had watched 

 a litter through the summer, were shut in our fox's face : so he 

 bore leftward to Shawell Wood, and beat hounds. For the next 

 hour or so they sought a fox in vain. But the driving rain and 

 the pattering leaves had made life aboveground unbearable ; 

 iind Reynard was not to be found until, at a comparatively early 

 hour, the shivering crew were dismissed homewards. 



On Saturday, Nov. 8, I was a little out of my ground ; but 

 ■dropped in for the brightest brief scurry I have yet seen, and 

 found myself among the smartest and sharpest field on this side 

 of Harboro', the Bicester to wit. The run was not quite long 

 ■enough or straight enough to justify my applying for special 

 permit regarding it. It was nearly becoming a gallop of 

 equal class to two or three others already on the books of the 

 pack in question, for the month past that with other hounds has 

 been so generally barren. Even this quarter-hour's item was 

 the first proper warming-up I have yet experienced — and of a 

 truth it was very evidently and practically appreciated, by a 

 party of men well suited to the occasion. Seeking safe pilotage, 

 my eye suggested choice between the noble Master, and a cer- 

 tain Leicestershire lord — whom I had ofttimes seen carving the 

 way over his own broad acres (Lord Lonsdale). Here he was 

 on strange ground and carving with a borrowed weapon. But 

 none the less deftly did he carve. Both were giving me and 

 most of us a couple of stone : and both were fitly mounted and 

 caparisoned cap d pie for the occasion. Accordingly, first I 

 pinned my faith to the former — but he soon left me in a bull- 



