202 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



tailing of the latter with nothing but pace to contend 

 against I never saw on any other occasion. Having 

 gained the summit, where there was a slight fog, the 

 pace became first rate, and at the farther extremity of 

 the downs the hounds came to a check, literally from 

 being blown. With more haste than judgment they 

 were immediately cast to the left in the direction of 

 some earths, but they could not recover the scent, and 

 after trying a long time quite in the opposite line to 

 what the fox had taken, it was discovered that at the 

 point where the hounds checked the fox bad turned to 

 the right down the hill, followed by three couples of 

 hounds, which the fog and the breast of the hill hid 

 from observation. They followed on the line of the fox 

 to the covert in which he was found, and were not at 

 first missed. The time from the fox breaking covert to 

 the check was twenty-three minutes. Tread well, the 

 whipper-in, had a few months previously been dis- 

 charged, and his place was not filled up by an efficient 

 substitute. 



Nine days afterwards the Craven hounds found the 

 same fox, and gave a different account of him. Fro 

 Park, it must be observed, is neutral with both hunts. 

 These hounds found him in the siame part of the 

 covert ; he broke at the same point and was viewed by 

 Clark, the first whip, who got the hounds away in a 

 body in a very workmanlike manner. They soon 

 settled down to the scent and raced to the same point 

 as the Vine had done, as far as the bottom of Sidmon- 

 ton Down, but the pace was too great and the fox was 

 too closely pressed to admit of his bearing to the right 

 and facing the choking hill as he had done before, and 

 he kept on by a more easy ascent to Combe Hole, and 

 thence to Canon's Heath, where they experienced a 

 slight check. They soon recovered it by a masterly 

 cast, crossed the Roman road to Ridgeway Heath 

 through a small spinny bearing a little to the left, and 

 straight to Overton Court Farm, where running from 

 scent to view he was pulled down in the Harrow-way 



