RUNS. 393 



not run up wind for longer than fifteen minutes at the out- 

 side, and it is then either " Who whoop to ground," or, if the 

 refuge or drain is stopped or inaccessible, he will turn down 

 wind and the pace will usually slacken. Few pursuers seem 

 to think that hounds can become blown as well as horses. 

 A ringing fox consults the ground he is running over, and 

 not the wind, and does not mean to go far in any 

 direction. 



Captain King-King remarks that " the length and duration 

 of a run, the colour and size of a fox when viewed, and the 

 shortest way home, are things on which fox hunters never 

 agree. It is generally admitted that the usual speed of fox 

 hounds in a fast run, is about eight miles an hour from point 

 to point. The quickest thing I ever saw was when the Lud- 

 low hounds did a 6 miles point in 27 minutes, and beat the 

 horses y z mile. Of course this run was nearly straight. No 

 two opinions are alike in a discussion about the ground run 

 over. Few men know the country they hunt in, and still 

 fewer pay any heed to the direction in which they are going. 

 The next fence is good enough for them to think of. A stag 

 goes much straighter than a fox. In the season of 1898-9 

 we ran a 15 miles point in South Bucks with the Queen's in 

 I hour and 25 minutes, which was very fast. 



" Owing to the drier condition of the ground as a result of 

 increased draining, scent is not so holding in Leicestershire 

 as formerly, and the foxes by no means run such good points 

 now as they did 20 years ago. Belvoir foxes on the Melton 

 side are not generally straight runners ; although I have known 

 many good things with them : for instance, a run of 10 miles 

 from Coston Gorse and a kill at the Wheat Hills near Little 

 Dalby, and another of the same length, from Melton Spinney 

 to a stick heap near Cossington Gorse. The flying thing of 

 the season in the Melton District is almost always with the 

 Belvoir. It is no good asking the Master or Huntsman 



