FOX HUNTING. .4J 



followed by a dinner to his hunting fjiends, and a 

 royal good time they had. At one of these hunts 

 on a green Christmas, without snow or ice, George 

 Powell, with Jack Smith, had his hounds also on 

 the Crum creek valley, and a fox was started early 

 in the morning by both packs. In the run a 

 second fox was started and the hounds separated, 

 a part taking each fox. George Powell, Jack 

 Smith, and the author got with the part of the 

 packs that ran their fox down the Crum, and a hot 

 chase they had to Carr's thicket in Ridley town- 

 ship, passing the present Swarthmore country, 

 which was then open farm land and timber. At 

 Carr's thicket the fox had taken to the fence and 

 an out was made by the hounds, so the riders dis- 

 mounted to tighten girths and let their horses get 

 their wind. The hounds being of the best and 

 well experienced, soon found the trick the fox had 

 resorted to, and some of the older ones mounted 

 the fence to hunt the track, and when the course 

 of the fox was found and signaled to the other 

 hounds by the cry of the finder, they climbed the 

 fence in the direction indicated, and, giving 

 tongue, they hunted it till they found where 

 the fox had left the fence, and then away they all 

 ran in full cry through the thicket. Then there 

 was a mounting of horses as the fox burst from 

 cover for a run back over the same country, on a 



