134 Sport in Mr. Cookson's era. 



Dec. 23. — Killerby : An immense field out, a great part of 

 whom were not sportsmen. 



Thursday, November 6th, 1863 : In spite of a very dense 

 fog, we threw off at noon at Blackman cover. Found directly ; 

 broke at the north-west corner, and, running north a couple of 

 fields, turned to the right across the turnpike road, and away 

 to Briar Flat Wood ; then turned sharp back up the river side, 

 and crossed to the Batts, ran their whole length, and then 

 re-crossed into Dalton Wood, and passing Dalton village went 

 to ground in a drain by the railway side, after a clipping burst 

 of twenty-four minutes, most of which was only seen by myself 

 on account of the fog. After a good deal of dela}' in procuring 

 a terrier, the fox was bolted, and went away pointing for Cler- 

 vaux Castle, which he left on the right, and then pointing for 

 Halnaby, ran a ring back to the railway and crossed the line, 

 running for Blackman cover, which he ran past, and crossed 

 the road, going direct for Forty Acres ; but, after getting within 

 a couple of hundred yards of the cover, he suddenly changed 

 his course, and, wheeling round to the right, he ran close past 

 Blackman House and then away for Cowton Plantations. 

 Most unfortunately the hounds divided at the railwa}^ one half 

 running up the line, and the other half crossing to the west, 

 which I followed in order to get the hounds off the line, and we 

 lost at Cowton village. We afterwards discovered that the 

 other half of the hounds, with the run fox, went straight up the 

 railway to the earths near Cowton Station, where they ran their 

 fox to ground. In their chase up the line they unluckily met a 

 train, and one of them, " Dainty," was run over and killed on 

 the spot. This run, from the drain to the point where the 

 hounds divided, was exactly one-hour-and-five-minutes, and 

 was undoubtedly first-class from beginning to end. The pace 

 was tremendous all the way, and only four of the field kept 



