SEASON OF 1913-1914 



"Take Beecham's Pills, avoid strong drink, beware how 

 you leave off flannel, and, whatever you do, don't change 

 your mind when once you 've picked your panel!" 

 Lindsay Gordon said that, and it's a thundering good 

 rule to follow, whether you're riding a steeplechase, 

 hunting, or merely doing the ordinary things of life. Per- 

 sonally, I've never taken the aforementioned pills; but I 

 have, I *m sorry to say, changed my mind about the panel. 



However, it's no use trying to go on writing when you 

 are so full of excitement about the opening of another 

 hunting season. But there is that something about an 

 opening day that makes one a bit nervous, as it were. 



Cub-hunting comes before the opening day, so we had 

 better get at that first. 



Hounds started cubbing about the middle of August, 

 with a good-sized and very likely-looking young entry, 

 making a total of fifty-three and a half couples of hounds 

 in kennel. 



One of the most interesting mornings was 29th October, 

 when our hounds harked to Sam Kirk's pack which was 

 running a fox on the Baltz Farm at Old Square. After 

 making several big circles around Innes's and Brooks's 

 Woods, where we viewed our fox a number of times, 

 hounds were pressing him pretty hard, and Reynard evi- 

 dently decided it was about time to go to ground. He 

 went to earth, but just in the nick of time, for a black-and- 

 tan hound came trotting proudly up to Sam Kirk, carry- 

 ing about half of the fox's brush in its mouth. A pretty 

 narrow squeak for Mr. Fox. 



