136 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



is not long since my hounds lost one, when hunting in the New Forest : 

 after having tried the country round, they had given him up, and were 

 gotten home ; when in rode a farmer, full gallop, with news of the fox : he 

 had found him, he said, in his stable, and had shut him in. The hounds 

 returned : the fox, however, stood but a little while, as he was quite run 

 up before. 



Some years ago, my hounds running a fox across an open country in a 

 thick fog, the fox scarcely out of view, three of the leading hounds dis- 

 appeared all of a sudden ; and the whipper-in, luckily, was near enough to 

 see it happen. They fell into a dry well, near a hundred feet deep : they 

 and the fox remained there together till the next day, when, with the great- 

 est difficulty, we got them all four out. 



Another time, having run a fox a burst of an hour and a quarter (the 

 severest I ever remember), the hounds at last got up to him by the side of 

 a river, where he had stayed for them. One hound seized him as he was 

 swimming across, and they both went down together : the hound came up 

 again, but the fox appeared no more. By means of a boat and a long pole, 

 we got the fox out. Had he not been seen to sink, he would hardly have 

 been tried for under water ; and, without doubt, we should have wondered 

 what had become of him. 



Now we are in the chapter of accidents, I must mention another, that 

 lately happened to me on crossing a river, to draw a cover on the other side 

 of it : The river Stower frequently overflows its banks, and is also very 

 rapid and very dangerous. The flood that morning, though sudden, was 

 extensive : the neighbouring meadows were all laid under water, and only 

 the tops of the hedges appeared. There were posts to direct us to the 

 bridge ; but we had a great length of water to pass before we could get at 

 it : it was, besides, so deep, that our horses almost swam ; and the shortest - 

 legged horses, and longest-legged riders, were worst off. The hounds 

 dashed in as usual, and were immediately carried, by the rapidity of the 

 current, a long way down the stream. The huntsman was far behind them ; 

 and, as he could advance but slowly, he was constrained to see his hounds 

 wear themselves out in a useless contention with the current, from their 

 efforts to get to him. It was a shocking scene ! many of the hounds, when 

 they reached the shore, had entirely lost the use of their limbs ; for it froze, 

 and the cold was intolerable : some lay as if they were dead, and others 

 reeled as if they had been drinking wine. Our ill-luck was not yet com- 

 plete : the weakest hounds, or such as were most affected by the cold, we 

 now saw entangled in the tops of the hedges, and heard their lamentations. 

 Well-known tongues ! and such as I had never heard before without pleas- 

 ure. It was painful to see their distress, and not know how to relieve it. 

 A number of people, by this time, were assembled near the river-side ; but 

 there was not one amongst them that would venture in. However, a 



