162 CLEVELAND AND ESKDALE. 



was near a finish, and it was the unanimous verdict 

 that the fox. could not hve much longer ; but 

 greatly did we undervalue the gameness of the 

 varmint, for even here, a cover almost impene- 

 trable for hounds and full of earths, wherein he 

 miofht have taken shelter and bid defiance to the 

 inroads of the spade and pickaxe, even here he 

 stayed not a moment. Again he faced the open 

 and skirted Ay ton Old Alum Works, through 

 Cockshot plantations, and away pointing for Kil- 

 dale ; the fox here made a curious turn to the 

 left and went over the hill close past Captain 

 Cook's Monument, and ran a ring on Goat Moor, 

 and back through Cockshot plantations away to 

 Easby Wood ; disdaining to avail himself of the 

 many places of safety which the hills would have 

 afforded him, our gallant fox again took the open 

 country, relying on his own stoutness to shake 

 off his blood-thirsty pursuers. Crash went the 

 hounds through Easby Wood, every hound threw 

 his tongue, and the chorus was truly grand ; at 

 this point some of our field thought the hounds 

 chano'ed foxes, and thouo-ht it madness to follow 

 further, perhaj)s the thought was convenient, as 

 their nags have already had a bellyful. Leaving 

 the village of Easby on the left our fox pointed 

 for the hills on the west of Tngleby, and then 

 turned to the right, and, running almost due west, 

 leaving Broughton, Kirby, and Busby on his left 

 and Stokesley on his right, he struggled on to 



