176 FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



minutes up to Barden Hill was very good. 

 Rode Houghton and Whittington ; Jack, Peter ; 

 Kit, Charlotte. 



'' February 24th. Fisher's Mill. — Eighteen 

 couples ; found our old fox in the Middleton 

 Garden Spinney ; ran him very fast up to North 

 Wood, through it and out three miles farther 

 up the country ; he then turned and came back 

 at a racing pace through all those fine meadows 

 in front of Kingsbury, crossed the river opposite 

 Cliff close to where the ladies were in the boat, 

 recrossed again below Fisher's Mill, and ran him 

 to ground in a rabbit-hole inside the hedge of 

 Trickley Coppice ; dug and killed a dog-fox : an 

 exceeding good run of one hour and twenty-five 

 minutes. Rode Houghton and Lupus ; Jack, 

 Peter; Kit, Charlotte." 



It seems as if he always liked to dig when he 

 ran a fox to ground, and evidently thought more 

 of his hounds than of his field, as on 5th March 

 a fox having gone to ground just in front of the 

 pack after a good run of nearly three hours, he 

 dug for three hours more and then failed to get 

 his fox. 



His own, and also his hunt servants' horses, 

 seem to have come out frequently, in spite of the 

 open weather and hard work. Four of his own 

 carried him on nearly twenty days each during 

 the season. He mentions, however, that Jack — 

 his first whip — had a heavy fall on nth March at 



