MR. HARRIS VIEWS THE POLLARD TREE FOX 



167 



Whalebone," and we had to sHp along on the road to catch hounds on the 

 common. Hitting it off on the meadows beyond, they hunted prettily over 

 the grass, no one following Mr. Arkwright over the stiff stile and footbridge 

 into the lane, most of them preferring to chance the bank and blind ditch. 

 Two more leps, and at the corner of Bay's Grove it was a case of facing 

 the up jump, over the stakey fence into the plough beyond or being left 

 behind. All our little band took it ; we had still six ladies with us, Mrs. 

 Bowlby, Mrs. Neill, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Bruce, Miss T. Buxton and Miss D. 

 Sewell, and some eight or nine men, including Mr. J. Green, of Parndon, 

 who had just joined us. Hitting it off under the hedge, they turned sharp 

 to the right, where the long furrows ran up to it, a beautiful piece of hound 



George Harris, Junr. 



work. Leaving Mr. Coleman's farm behind, they ran on through the Fir 

 Plantation, and so to Passmore's and over the brook beyond, Easterby's 

 horse having a narrow escape, as one of its hind legs went through a hole 

 on the bridge up to its hock. 



How short our fox was running only those who were there and marked 

 how the little ladies worked out each labyrinthine twist could fully appre- 

 ciate. Running by Brockles Farm, he was viewed over the road near 

 Parndon Woods which he was too hot to enter, our informant, Mr. G. 

 Harris, who had been with us all day, but towards the latter part of it had 

 done a little macadamising on his own account. Beyond Fern Hills the 

 pace began to quicken ; as the fox took his last turn, he tried in vain to 

 find refuge in the barn near the old Pollard Tree. Exactly one hour and 



