1000] A BATCH OF YOUNGSTERS. 319 



tried to smoke this fox out or dislodge him in some way or other, we had to 

 leave him after all and ride off to draw Bunker's Hill. Hounds found at once, 

 and getting away on good terms, ran fast to Pastures, where they checked. 

 But their huntsman lost no time in casting them to the right of the road, and 

 they began running again just as if there was a scent. But they soon needed 

 encouragement to push on with their fox, for scent was evidently failing. A 

 view close to Mr. Wallroth's house at Mickleover helped matters, and, hitting 

 off the hne again, after a momentary check, they ran up to the high road to 

 Derby, but turned back through Mr. Wallroth's garden, and got back to Bunker's 

 Hill, after running about twenty minutes. On going away again, there seemed 

 to be a brace of foxes, and the huntsman had some difficulty in getting his hounds 

 on to the line of one which they eventually hunted slowly up to Chain Lane, 

 which leads from the Burton to the Uttoxeter main road. Here they checked, 

 and could do no more good with this fox. After a long jog to Burnaston, they 

 found again in the gorse, and ran to the sewage farm, where they lost their fox, 

 after losing a gi'eat many of their followers en route, as it was getting foggy. They 

 found again in Egginton Gorse, but did nothing beyond hunting slowly towards 

 Etwall Station. The most cheering feature of the day was the sight of so many 

 keen young hands out on their ponies eager for the fray, amongst whom were 

 Masters ChetwjTid (2), Robinson, Montgomery, Holland, Miss Walkden and two 

 brothers, and Evelyn Charrington on his mother's bay mare. Every one was 

 glad to see that good sportsman, Mr. Hartley, out again after his illness, while 

 the absence of another of the right sort in Mr. Dudley Fox through being laid on 

 the bed of sickness elicited universal expressions of sympathy. 



Saturday, at Walton, was a red-letter day indeed ; in fact, one very competent 

 judge [Mr. Maynard] pronounced it the best day the Meynell have had for four 

 years, but his opinion may possibly have been biased by the fact that he and 

 another [Mr. Caldecott], who generally sees more of a run than most of us, 

 admittedly had the best of the first-rate gallop in the morning. This started 

 from Drakelowe Gardens, where hounds killed one fox, and, getting away with 

 another, ran him, as if they were tied to his brush, through Grove Wood and on 

 to Walton Wood. A good horse of Mr. Winterton's broke his back before getting 

 there, making the third which has succumbed to the vicissitudes of the chase this 

 week. Through Walton Wood the dog-hounds drove their fox with a rare dash 

 and cry, and, swinging in their gallop, turned without a moment's hesitation on 

 the line of their fox, as he bent left-handed to the LuUington road. With Catton 

 Rough on their left, they went ding-donging on with a bit the best of the horses, 

 who probably did not quite agree with the old adage of '"more splash, more sport," 

 through Catton Wood, within a field of Homestall Wood, and ran him fairly to 

 ground in a pit-hole on Lady Lee Farm, LuUington, after a clinking gallop of 

 forty-five minutes — as good a gallop as you want to see. Hounds ran fast with 

 great dash and drive. " The best scent we have had this year ; no wire in a single 

 fence, and the farmers all pleased to see you," was the verdict of a rare good 

 sportsman, who knows more about such things than most of us, and an account 

 of a good run could hardly be summed up in a more pithy sentence. The one 

 thing wanted to make it perfect was blood, and that hounds would undoubtedly 

 have had but for their fox getting to ground. They found again at Catton Rough, 

 but, curiously enough, with this fox there was no scent. They then went to 

 what bids fair to be a famous covert, Mr. Ratcliff's gorse to wit. Hence a gi-and 

 bold fox was away in a twinkling, with hounds close on his brush. So fast, mdeed, 

 ■did they go, with the deep ground all in their favour, that they were not over- 

 Jiauled till they got to Mrs. Colvile's house at LuUington. Unfortimately, she 



