7S 



LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY 



this coign of vantage a good many took their stand. Following Bailey 

 and a few others down the green ride which runs parallel with the brook, we 

 could tell at once by the waving sterns and eagerness of the hounds that 

 there was a fox on foot ; not half a minute before there was a whimper ; it was 

 a treat to see Bailey's face as he cheered the trusty hound, ' Yoi, Abigail ! ' 



" ' Must be the same old fox,' remarked a farmer. ' No sir, can't be, 

 perhaps it's his ghost.' By which time all the hounds were giving tongue, 

 and the side he would break was the burning question. After one turn 

 round he was away at the bottom, and with a couple of hounds close at 

 his brush. 



" ' Give them time, sirs,' came the eager entreaty of the huntsman to half- 

 a-dozen thrusters. Bearing slightly to the left, by the time they had crossed 

 two fields and threaded a narrow belt of trees, they had fairly settled down, 

 and for the next ten minutes they simply flew in a perfectly straight line 



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'^Is^'' 



The Osiers, Roxwell 



over a delightful country, the hounds tailing out as they jealously strove 

 for the lead ; we had the bitch pack, and they could make any fox feel very 

 uncomfortable in ten minutes, on a good scenting morning. Had he held 

 on straight, they would soon liave coursed him down, for Bailey viewed the 

 varmint doubling back up a furrow like a hare, while the hounds running 

 down another, overshot the mark, going the whole length of the field before 

 they swung round, only three or four of them answering the huntsman's 

 cry. ' The last shall be first,' they soon put into practice, and these tail 

 hounds went off at score and met the rear-guard of the horse brigade who 

 with a bad start had been having a very stern chase. After going three 

 or four fields their prey was viewed, into and away from Boyton Hall 

 Springs. Hunting slowly through a cabbage field, we were pulled up by a very 

 stiff obstacle, a wide blind ditch with a strong bullfinch on the far side (what 

 Dick Christian would have called a stitcher). It was most edifying to see 



