FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 183 



quick over to Oldbury ; brought him back to the 

 park, where we had three or four foxes on foot 

 and the hounds all divided; got them together 

 and recovered one of the foxes, who went away 

 at the best pace for forty minutes, and we killed 

 in a farmyard between Kingsbury and Coventry. 

 Rode Cottager and Skylark ; Jack, Leicester ; 

 Kit, Cumberland. 



'' November 27th. Newbold Gate. — Twenty 

 couples ; O. P. Found in the small gorse ; ran him 

 for fifteen minutes at the most bursting pace 

 possible, and killed him, a young dog-fox. Found 

 directly in the large gorse; ran him round by 

 Ratby Burrows, nearly to Mackfield, back by 

 the gorse, where he nearly beat us by slipping 

 short back ; but a farmer came and told me he had 

 just seen him go into a drain in a grass field. 

 Opened it, and got it out — an old bitch-fox ; a 

 good run, though a ring, for two hours. Rode 

 Houghton and Squire; Jack, Bluebeard; Kit, 

 Pomfret.*' 



Evidently he was on very good terms with 

 Osbaldeston, and this is shown by a note in the 

 Diary : '' Hunted him nicely down to Braunston, 

 where I stopped the hounds, as Osbaldeston was 

 to meet there next day.'' An excellent example. 



There was a very hard day for hounds and 

 horses on nth December, when they whipped 

 off after running for five hours, the last twenty 

 minutes by moonlight. A day or two previous, 



