FORBIDDEN flROUND 



291 



be permitted to run through the Navestock coverts, as they had not been 

 shot ; and here I would remark that, much as hunting men may regret the 

 restrictions imposed upon them by owners of coverts, yet they have no real 

 cause to grumble when the coverts are thrown open to them after they have 

 been shot through. Let any hunting man inclined to cavil put himself in 

 the shooter's place, and he will at once fully sympathise with those 

 in similar circumstances. It is, I think, admitted by all — even by game- 

 keepers — that in big woods and coverts, pheasants are little disturbed by 

 hounds running through. It is the small ones where the mischief is done, 

 and when pheasants, driven out, do not return. These considerations, 

 however, did not enter into the head of the Curtis Mill Green fo.\, for 

 slipping past all opposition he went away towards Shonk's Mill, and hounds 

 came away in pursuit, and there was a strong injunction to stop them 

 should they approach any forbidden ground. 



About a mile from the Green, however, our fox went to ground in a 



Passingford Bridge 



drain, from which, after some delay, he was evicted, but managed to elude 

 hounds, which were shortly afterwards whipped off. Several spills 

 occurred in this short run. Miss Buxton was thrown and dragged, but 

 fortunately not hurt. Mr. Jones took a toss, and another sportsman's face 

 presented the appearance of a butcher's shop. Mr. Sworder, however, on 

 his young one, got over the country as quick as anyone. Mr. Waltham 

 was in his usual place, while Mr. Miller and his son might both have been 

 riding old and staid hunters instead of precocious young ones. The rest 

 of the morning was spent in a fruitless endeavour to find a fox in Sir 

 Charles Smith's coverts, winding up, as a forlorn hope, at Shalesmore, 

 where early in the season some dastardly and cowardly ruffian succeeded 

 in poisoning a fine litter of cubs. A man who secretly poisons foxes is 

 quite capable of stabbing you in the back in the dark. Of such an one 

 let all men beware : — 



" The motions of his spirit are dull as night. 

 And his affections dark as Erelms." 



