THEIR PHILOSOPHY OF THE CHASE. 67 



and having had the misfortune to break his leg he gave Mr. 

 Davenport " carte blanche " of his stable, the followino- 

 being one of many fine runs in which the subject of this 

 notice participated, mounted upon a dun horse, which 

 turned at nothing, belonging to the above gentleman. Dick 

 Summers viewed the fox away from Alexton Wood ; the 

 gallop was by Finchley Bride, Loddington Village, Launde 

 Park Wood, between Leigh Lodge and Cole's Lodge, 

 through Prior's Coppice nearly to Braunston, then bearing 

 to the right reynard pointed for Ridlington, but hugging 

 the Hog's-back they ran into him just short of Launde 

 Park Wood. The Rector admits he skirted a good bit in 

 this run, but had the pleasure of taking the fox from the 

 hounds, no one else being present, and of presenting it to 

 the huntsman when he arrived on the scene. He describes 

 it as " a very brilliant gallop; hounds worked right well, 

 and at times ran very fast, racing away from the field 

 before catching their dead-beaten quarry on the Hog's- 

 back." The mask of this fine old dog-fox hangs in the 

 hall at Skeffington Rectory. The following frank 

 description of a night spent in the worship of Bacchus, 

 which the Rector has kindly forwarded to me, must be 

 given in his own words, otherwise it might be thought 

 that I was pulling the long bow! 



'Timber' Powell, as he was called from his partiality in the 

 field, resided at the Whitehall, Billesdon, and man\^ were the 

 good woodcock that 'just Rew through the kitchen' before 

 being devoured. On one occasion ' Timber ' asked my father 

 and self to eat woodcock and sample port wine, of which my 

 father was a great connoisseur, and twelve black bottles were 

 placed on the table after the woodcock had been despatched. 

 Now ' Timber ' said, ' We'll take one each in rotation.' Our 

 host, my father and myself each sipped, smelled, and held up 

 our glasses in front of a well-lit lamp, and came to the 

 conclusion that the wine was very good. There were no fighting 

 cocks to-night, and after a smoke and a good strong glass of 

 whiskey toddy (the night was very cold), lighting up another 

 excellent weed, we set out to \valk home — one mile. We had 

 not gone far before the old man took my arm and remarked, — 



