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tlie Merton earths, but passed tliem on to the village, 

 crossed the road again, and ran do^Ti to the river side. 

 Here we had our first check. One hour and thirty- 

 minutes to this point. Soon hit it off, and hunted him 

 bacii towards the farmhouse. Now comes the worst 

 part of the story : Morris, my second whip, here came 

 in sight on my left ; about six couple o£ hounds had the 

 line on the left side of a thick double hedge, the rest of 

 the hounds being on the wrong side. Just then Powell 

 came up, meeting us with two couple of the hounds 

 which had been left behind. He saw something move 

 in the hedge, pulled his cap off, and capped the hounds 

 on his side to a hare. " Be quiet," I shouted. In the 

 meantime, Morris has stopped the others off the 

 line, and got their heads up. There was a curdog bark- 

 ing in the farmyard, and three young hounds ran through 

 the gate towards it from the other side, in front of those 

 that had had the line. They had their heads up, and 

 started to join them, thinking there was a view. I got 

 them all quiet as soon as I could, and drew every hedge 

 row round about for an hour, but could make no more 

 of it. I got a line again over the road and up to the 

 drain, and then away from it as if he had been headed, 

 as there were two men working on the mouth of it 

 almost, and I think since that he may perhaps have got 

 in after all ; at any rate, it was the best run I ever saw, 

 and if we had caught him, would have been perfection. 

 I was riding Maximus, Jack Darby's horse : he never 

 made a mistake, but galloped the whole time with his 

 head loose. He never was blown, and very little tired. 

 Both he and I have a thorn in our knee, but that is all 

 the grief we experienced. Come here, and we will try 

 and do it again. 



