28J MILES IN 3 HOURS 20 MINUTES. I95 



finale is yet to come. Thatcher is standing on the stick-heap 

 by the drain, bitterly disappointed at the disappearance of his 

 beaten fox, when the hounds feather up the furrow ; he is off 

 his perch in a second, cheering on the pack on foot, and handles 

 his fox a moment later. And so alter all this remarkable hunt 

 ended with blood, and in this respect holds the advantage over 

 the great Waterloo run of the Pytchley, and the Greatwood 

 run with the Duke of Beaufort, with which it has been 

 compared in the papers. I have since talked it over with 

 Thatcher, and worked out the points carefully on the map ; 

 and not allowing for small deviations I cannot make it less 

 than twenty-eight-and-a-half miles. The distance between the 

 farthest points, i.e., Hegg Spinney and the point where our fox 

 turned short of Peak's covert, is approximately nine miles by 

 crow-fly. A great deal has been said about the change of 

 foxes, for it seems almost incredible that one fox could have 

 stood before hounds for all that distance, but I doubt if they 

 changed in Orton Park Wood, and it was undoubtedly a hunted 

 fox they took from Knossington, Foxes lie out at this time of 

 year, and they may have picked up a fresh one anywhere, but 

 Thatcher thinks that in all probability he killed the one he 

 started with. Be that as it may, he hunted his hounds in 

 masterly fashion, and may be congratulated on having scored 

 a run, the like of which is not to be found for many years back 

 in the history of fox-hunting. Postscript: the time from start 

 to finish was about 3 hours 20 minutes. It is a curious coinci- 

 dence that this run began close to the spot where Colonel 

 Anstruther Thompson whipped off his hounds in the dark at 

 the end of the Waterloo run in February 1866. 



Historic run with Mr. Fernie's — 14-Mile Point. 



March 23rd, 1912. Getting away from Bolt Wood, near 

 Stockerston, about half-past two, behind what Thatcher after- 

 wards described as the best fox he ever hunted, Mr. Fernie's 

 dog-pack on Saturday last ran the Woodlands to Alexton, and 

 crossing the brook to the right of the village, raced along over 

 a beautiful line of country, passed Turner's Gorse and over the 

 Hog's Back as if for Prior's coppice ; before the brook was 

 reached, however, they swung left-handed, and drove through 

 Lawn Park Wood without a pause. The heavy state of the 

 ground had j^iven hounds every advantage over horses, and the 

 big field was quickly tailed off. Thatcher, who had had a 

 nasty fall at the start, got up to his hounds again here, and 



