12 HUNTING AND SPORTING NOTES. 



so tlie fox, wlio dodged back over the Canal for his 

 home quar ers, and was lost Hinton way. Peel's Gorse 

 was our next liaiuit, and, as usual, produced a plethora 

 of the desired animal. According- to custom, too, there 

 were several false starts, until at last the pack came out, 

 and settled on one going down Whitchurch way, that 

 dropped down across the railway, and looked likely to give 

 us a gallop, l)ut he was a home-sick brute, and circling 

 back by a small Moss, with the pack almost in the same 

 field with him, only just managed to work his way 

 through troops of shouting foot-people to Peel's Grorse, 

 and cheat the hounds of a meal in its almost impene- 

 trable recesses. Sir Watkin, still present on wheels, from 

 which he had se n much fun, then gave the order for Os 

 Mere. There, some salutary cracldngs of whips were 

 decidedly judicious on the railway side, as they awoke up 

 a brace of foxes, which made tracks at once, as if for 

 Ash. The hounds settled on one of them merrily, 

 and, skirting the far side of the Mere, we were obliged 

 to put our best leg foremost to be with them down to 

 Combermere ; disdaining, however, the big covert by the 

 lake, our fox turned left-handed, skirted the park, and 

 then dipped down the valley parallel with the railway, 

 honnds pushing along gloriously, until another left- 

 handed turn brought us to the railway, not far from 

 Wrenbury Station. Cleverly handled over the Jine, we 

 were now in full swing towards the brook, which 

 the hounds did not cross, however, but raced merrily 

 alongside of it on the grass, right up the Cheshire vale 

 as if Marbury Moss was his point. The hounds hesitated 

 after another mile or so, and Coodall took it into his 

 head that an Os Mere fox must necessarily work 

 towards home, dud so persisted in holding them towards 

 the railway again. I venture to think the fox held 

 on his course — at all events, his line had not been 

 recovered when I remembered that the 4 p.m. train 

 had to be caught, and was obliged to turn homewards. 

 The last gallop, the cream of which lasted about thirty 

 minutes to the Wrenbury brook, had redeemed the day 

 from decided mediocrity. But I must fain confess that 

 Goodall's powers as a huntsman, when called into 

 requisition at a critical point in a run, are not of the 

 " born huntsman " character. His friends say he has 

 improved, to which I will add, " There is room for more." 



