1900] WEDDING PRESENT TO MR. AND MRS. COOPER. 315 



bowl with a few well-chosen words, suitable to the occasion, to which Mr. Cooper 

 replied in an equally hajipy vein. The latter has always taken the keenest interest 

 in the welfare of the Hunt, and his coverts are never drawn blank, so it was but 

 natural that the Hunt should wish to give him some token of the esteem in which 

 he is held, and this, owing partly to Sir Peter Walker's initiative, took the form of 

 a wedding present as mentioned above. For the rest the well-known Osmaston 

 hospitality did all it could to dispel the cold and gloom of an unpropitious New 

 Year's morning. 



Tuesday, Newton village. — Here another fog lay in wait for us, though half a 

 mile on the Blithfield side of the village the atmosphere was fairly clear. So 

 men, women, and hounds wandered about like spectres in the mist for an hour 

 or more, till the Master gave the welcome order to dive down into Blitlifield to 

 see what it was Hke there. Much better it was assuredly, and a charitable fox 

 earned our goodwill by turning back towards daylight and Kingston Wood after 

 a brief ring from the square covert, where we found him, by Duckley Wood, and 

 back again. From the square covert one fox crossed over into Stansley Wood 

 and the fog, while, as has already been said, the hunted fox made his way 

 across to the left of Bagot's Bromley and to the right of Heatley, trying the pit- 

 hole en route, to Kingston Wood. Twice round the big wood they drove him, 

 till he was fain to cry, " Enough," and to lie down in front of the hounds. How 

 he escaped is a mystery, but escape he did, though they were all roimd him, 

 and went on across Woodcock Heath, sorely tired, down to the river. But 

 a cold bath, it seemed, was not to his Hking, for though the huntsman cast his 

 hounds across the swollen stream, while a few hardy spirits followed them, they 

 could not speak to the line on the further side, so they and their followers had 

 to come back again, which was a poor reward for enterprise. However, they 

 hit off the line again on the hither side, and puzzled out an intricate course 

 patiently into Loxley Park Wood. Here the fox was viewed dead beat, but it 

 seemed as if they must have left him behind them and must have got away with 

 a fresh one. Him they hunted slowly to Ashcroft, by Mr. Bateson's farm, where 

 he beat them. They found again in Bagot's Wood, but six couples slipped on 

 and were out of sight and hearing in no time, so, as it was getting late, it was 

 decided to go home. Meanwhile the truants ran by Floyer's Coppice, passed 

 Mr. Leason's farm with a brace of foxes in front of them, and by Smallwood 

 back to the woods. 



Thursday brought a large field to Sutton village, Boden's Thorns held a good 

 fox, who took a capital Ime, parallel at first with the Sutton road. Turning left- 

 handed, hounds crossed this road, and ran nicely by the Spath to Sutton Mill. 

 There were fences which took some jumping on the way, as a good sportsman 

 [Captain Holland] found to his cost when he fell headlong into a wide and watery 

 ditch, and emerged dripping like a retriever. Nothing daunted, he got a change 

 of clothes — better suited, it is true, for shooting or fishing than for fox-hunting — 

 and was soon sailing away again in his accustomed place at the tail of the hoimds, 

 thus bearing testimony to the lines which claim that " 'Tahi't the red coat makes 

 the rider, breeches, boots, nor yet the cap." Hounds meanwhile continued their 

 course along the brook till they turned right-handed over the Sutton and Church 

 Broughton road, through the Eookery plantation, just outside the Barton Blount 

 gates, and ran their fox to ground in a stick heap after a very nice run of forty 

 minutes. And what is more, their fox was unearthed and killed. In the after- 

 noon they found in Hilton Corse a ringing fox, who eventually ran across the 

 High road to Marston Fields, and back to Hatton, where they lost him. Penny- 

 waste was blank, but they found in the top Foston Covert, and ran fast through 



