1899] HARRY BONNER RESIGNS. 305 



road, and ran, intermittently, through Field House Coppice and the spinny 

 opposite Daisy Bank, to Dog Kennel Wood, where they lost him. They found 

 again in the Brakenhurst and ran across the Yoxall road towards Yoxall Lodge, 

 but turned back again into the Brakenhurst, and ran nearly to the road which 

 divides the latter from Jackson's Bank. Here there were two lines and there 

 was a halloa towards Yoxall. But hounds must have got to very close 

 quarters with one fox, for, with a rare crash of music, they raced down the hill, 

 over the brook, and, bearing left-handed, ran at a great pace to Hoar Cross. Two 

 people of opposite sexes seemed to be particularly enjoying riding the exact hne 

 of the hounds across a very strongly-fenced bit of country. Hounds checked 

 near the Old Hall, but the fox was viewed, and, getting on his line, hounds ran 

 at a good pace to Birch Wood, where they checked just inside the fence, and 

 never touched his line again. There was a halloa to the right towards the Hall 

 just as they got to the Birch Wood, and their fox may have gone that way. No- 

 fox was to be found in Yoxall, and, though they say there is luck in odd numbers,. 

 Kingstanding failed us at the third time of asking. 



Thursday, Swilcar Lawn, where Mr. Arliss entertained all comers with his 

 usual hospitality. The clerk of the weather also treated us very well by sand- 

 wiching a nice still day — quite a perfect one for woodland hunting — in between 

 two very rough ones. Hounds drew from Bank Top to the middle of Bagot'fr 

 Wood before they found. The fox set his head for Parkside, but promptly 

 turned short back. There were two simultaneous halloas in diflerent directions 

 soon afterwards, so there must have been a brace of foxes, but hounds got on to 

 one of the right sort, for he ran as straight as a gun-barrel the whole length of 

 the wood into Lord's Coppice, and out at the end of it. The pack ran well 

 through the wood, and great was the grumbling of their followers as they plunged 

 into a soft place here, jumped a ditch to avoid one there, cannoned against a tree, 

 or scratched their faces in the bushes. However, everything comes to an end, 

 and so did the wood, but it was not a very large party who got away on good 

 terms with the hounds, and accompanied the huntsman and first whipper-in, as 

 the former went blowing his horn for dear life, with the pack striding away best 

 pace across the open. The master, of course, was one of them, but he had the 

 bad luck to get hung up in a deer snare in the second field from the wood, but, 

 luckily, without any bad results. Meanwhile hounds ran fast down to the 

 Bromley lane, and looked for a moment as if they were going to Bromley Park, 

 but the fox had been turned, and had run down the lane for a couple of hundred 

 yards, till he turned out of it to the left. The huntsman cast forward, and 

 hitting off the line of the fox at once, the pack ran at a good pace left-handed 

 and then right-handed to where three roads meet, and where the Blithbury road 

 diverges from the main road from Newborough to Abbots Bromley, where the 

 run was practically over. They found again in the Rhododendron Covert at 

 Blithfield and ran very fast to the WaiTen, all along the top of it, across the road 

 to Newton village by Newton Hurst to gi'ound just outside Kingston Wood. 



At the end of the season Harry Bonner resigned and 

 retired into private life, taking the King's Arms at Bicester. 

 He had shared the general bad luck of the season, having 

 illness, bad scenting weather, and sickness in kennel to 

 contend against. 



