42 HUNTING AND SPORTING NOTES. 



crossed the road, wliicli, cutting the bank, runs between 

 Fitz and Leaton Church, and we pushed him out of covert 

 at last at about a quarter to three in the afternoon. 



" He was viewed by a railway porter, crossing, in his 

 impudence, the very platform of Leaton Station itself, and 

 while horsemen crossed the line at the bridge, Reynard 

 took refuge in Mr. LLoyd's " privet," on the east side of 

 the rails. Here, consensu omnium, we changed our fox, 

 but our new friend showed himself to be an improvement 

 on the old, and gave us a run which will long be remem- 

 bered by all who followed him to the bitter end. 



" He broke cover from Mr. LLoyd's privet at ten 

 minutes past three, and was run, with only one serious 

 check, till five o'clock. 



*' He started on a northerly tack, as it seemed, for Pim 

 Hill, followed closely by the hounds, who, together with 

 horses and riders, rejoiced in a good run after their fort- 

 night's enforced inactivity. We ran a fair pace, without 

 any check of consequence, to Mr. Ey ton's small covert 

 between Pim Hill and Merrington. We all thought he 

 was then making for the hill, but Eeynard had apparently 

 a different design. 



" We had one or two stiffish fences on the way. There 

 was one easy fence uphill, but with an unseen deep ditch 

 the other side. This led to a terrible catastrophe to a 

 smart young stranger mounted by a friend on rather a 

 groggy mare. Not being able to look before he leaped 

 he landed his mare half-in-half out of the ditch, and him- 

 self was sent bowling hcdd over heels (like a rabbit shot 

 dead in mid -career) in a heavy ploughed field. To give 

 our friend his due, he proved a plucky one, and he and 

 his mare stuck to it, when they joined company again, 

 till the very end. 



" Well, leaving Pim Hill to the right, our fox veered 

 round a bit, and went over some heavy plough-land in 

 the hollow, keeping the Hollins to the left. There he 

 was pursued over low boggy land between Higher and 

 Lower Fennymere up to the long sedges on the south side 

 of Fennymere Pool. 



"There is a well known boggy stream running from 

 south to north into the pool on its southern side, and a few 

 horsemen, knowing the coimtry, elected to avoid it, and 

 kept to the north side of the pool, on the chance of the 

 fox going on to Marton. 



