so mms of tbe 1f3untln(>f ielb 



lips, I could not have believed it possible. They are a 

 race not easily to be turned from their purpose, these 

 same Lincolnshire farmers, and I verily believe that 

 such a hard-riding lot of men is to be found in no 

 country in the world as they are, for, although the 

 Melton men go as hard as it is possible to go, it must 

 be remembered that they are generally on the picked 

 hunters of the world — the most clever, and the best 

 horses that money can buy — whereas a great portion 

 of the Lincolnshire farmers are on raw young horses 

 learning their business, and requiring plenty of pluck 

 and horsemanship to make them hold their place in a 

 run without coming on their heads and rolling their 

 riders in the mud. In no country is the practice so 

 universal of making horses as in Lincolnshire, especially 

 this side of it ; and there is scarcely a farmer to be found 

 who has not two or three promising young horses in his 

 stable, that will, as their education becomes complete, 

 be passed on, and their places supplied by more young 

 ones.' 



The following extraordinary incident, recounted by 

 Mr Fitt, is worth preserving. 



' I once, when hunting with these hounds, saw a ver}- 

 curious thing happen. We were in some large woods, 

 of which I now forget the name, and found a ringing 

 fox, which refused to leave the covert, or at most would 

 go a field or two and return ; the second whip, on one 

 of these occasions, hit at him with his whip to turn him, 

 when the lash twisted round his neck, and he was tossed 

 in the air and literally hanged, and the hounds, being 

 close on his brush, caught him almost as he came 

 down.' 



The second Earl of Yarborough died in 1875, 



