88 BUNTING AND SPOBTING NOTES. 



Talking of killing foxes late in the season, it is a. 

 recorded fact that the Belvoir Hounds once on the 10th 

 of April killed five old foxes, and thirteen or fourteen 

 cubs. This is a feat unworthy of emulation. What 

 Borderer keeps on saying, asleep and awake, is " shall, 

 we have a fair chance of trying to catch another fox 

 this side August ? " Perhaps not ! 



TWENTY FIEST WEEK, Maech 15th to 20th. 



A welcome change. Gulliver in all his travels never 

 came across such a transforma,tion in scene, climate, and' 

 degree, than we have during the last three days. A 

 Canadian winter breaks as suddenly, I believe, into 

 Spring as we seem to be doing, but even in this changeful 

 chmate of ours few of us have experienced such an 

 abandonment of extreme cold^ and the presence of balmy. 

 Spring within the week. 



The very sniff of the altered state of the atmosphere 

 made sportsmen on Thursday night feel new men, and 

 on Friday, come what might. Borderer felt compelled to 

 be on a horse, just for a bit of exercise if for nothing else,, 

 to give the liver a turn, and risk being kicked off. The 

 fog would be sure to clear by noon, and a stick found no 

 resistance in the ground, except here and there. So to 

 High Ercall he trotted, in solitary grandeur. Not a 

 hunting coat on the broad horizon. Plenty of people 

 bent on a sale at Mr. Lewis's of Koden, which I should 

 hope was a success owing to the break-up of the frost. 

 Thank goodness, there were Thatcher and the hounds at 

 all events, even it the Shropshire people, excepting some 

 score, had not awoken to the fact that hunting was 

 practicable as soon as the fog cleared. Some shook their 

 heads. "Impossible to ride." *'Bbsh, my friends,. 

 hounds can hunt, and follow them we must as best we 

 can. Horses will jump all the better at the ditches full 

 of snow, only don't ride too fast at them for fear of the 

 take off being a trifle treacherous." About twelve- 



