Ifre^erlcl? peter Beltne^lRabclttfe 259 



Noble Science,' that it was a ' three o'clock fox,' and that 

 when crossing the canal the pack were 'clustering as 

 though all might have been included in a casting net' 

 From start to finish the distance was thirty miles, which 

 Mr Delme-Radcliffe asserted was covered in two hours 

 and twenty-eight ininutes ' without a hound missing : with 

 a fox found after a severe morning's previous work : 

 and, taking it altogether, it has been pronounced by the 

 oldest Masters of Hounds and other high authorities 

 as a run which will scarcely find a parallel in the records 

 of any country.' Mr W. C. A. Blew, the able editor 

 of the latest edition of the ' Noble Science ' (1893), takes 

 exception to Mr Delme-Radcliffe's estimate of the time 

 occupied in covering those thirty miles. 'With the 

 greatest possible respect,' he says, ' for Mr Delme-Rad- 

 cliffe's memory and accuracy, it is possible, I venture to 

 think, that in his unbounded admiration for the hounds of 

 Lord Segrave's blood he has made some mistake in the 

 distance or the time. If the hounds ran thirty miles in 

 the time given, it is tolerably certain that the horses did 

 not gallop at rather more than twelve miles an hour for 

 more than two-and-a-half hours.' 



For my own part, I regard with suspicion all wonderful 

 'times' in the old days. Look, for example, at the prepos- 

 terous legends about Flying Childers, who is credited with 

 covering the Beacon Course at Newmarket, four miles 

 four furlongs thirteen yards, in seven minutes thirty 

 seconds, and the Round Course, three miles four furlongs 

 three yards, in six minutes forty seconds ! That is to 

 say, we are asked to believe that Flying Childers kept up 

 for four miles and a half an average pace as fast almost as 

 has ever been run by the highly-trained modern thorough- 

 bred when a mile was the limit of the race ! No one who 



