A ROUflll MORNING 289 



sent all the field <:,^alloping round the wood only to find on arriving that 

 the fox had turned back. Nearly all plunged into the covert, but were too 

 late to get away with hounds, who had gone out on the opposite side towards 

 the Forest with very few followers, Mr. C. F. McKee, who was paying 

 a visit to his old country, being one of the lucky ones ; by the way he sent 

 the new purchase^ along it was quite evident that his right hand had not 

 forgotten its cunning, and that eye and nerve were as good as ever. 



The run, which commenced before the rain, might have developed into 

 something really good had not the fox been headed back towards the Hart, 

 where he was soon lost. Home now you would have gone had you been a 

 weather prophet, for how could hounds be expected to do anything with 

 the fox they afterwards found in the open in the large mustard field at the 

 back of Hatfield Town ? Hardly enough to warm you up, as they drove 

 for a few brief minutes in a circle round the scene of the morning's meet, 

 in pitiless storm of rain and wind. A sigh of relief when the order came for 

 home, and horses were called upon to hack the 12 or 14 miles to their 

 stables without a break ; and a hot bath, I ween, never seemed such a 

 luxurious necessity before. 



A capital show of foxes at Easton on Friday, I was told, and also a very 

 good sprinkling in the Pleshey country on Saturday, but wind and rain 

 prevented much sport. 



' Mr. G. Sew( 



19 



