1900] A DARLEY MOOR DAY. 339 



Settling to the line, hounds ran best pace in the direction of Snelston up to the 

 main road close to Birch Wood Park Farm, where, perhaps, the fox was headed. 

 Anyhow, he turned sharp left-handed, and hounds ran fast up-wind over the well- 

 known bottom, pointing for Cinder Hill. This same bottom is a queer place to 

 get over, as a very keen young lady and two gentlemen found to their cost. 

 The lady's horse was in evil plight, 



"And Dobbin, released from his work at the plough, 

 Had to aid the fine hunter stuck fast in the slough." 



But there was but little time for any one who wanted to be with hounds, as 

 they rattled on, to stop and look, though plenty of good Samaritans did lend a 

 hand. A brief, merry skurry ended in about eight or nine minutes in the okl 

 copper mine at Cinder Hill, and the fox did not have much the best of it. They 

 found yet another fox in Cubley Gorse — Captain Clowes's health ought to have 

 been diimk to-night — and ran out the same way as before, but turned up the 

 hill and Cubley-way to the main road, where they checked. It was a treat to 

 see the way the little bitches ran over the ploughed land beyond the road, when 

 once they settled to it, with Vixen in the front, as she usually is, unless, indeed, 

 the young ones flash over it, when " Youth is by wiser age reproved," for she is 

 not of the sort that go beyond the line over much. Wish we had a whole pack 

 like her ! Leaving Stydd Hall on the left, they ran down the hill and up the 

 opposite slope just to the left of Bentley Old Hall, and checked short of Bentley 

 Car. Diving into this stronghold of foxes, they drove their quarry out on the 

 Alkmonton side, and ran him to Mr. Saint's farm, just this side of the Alkmontou 

 Bottoms. Mr. Saint, standing there with his gnu, had seen him, " black and 

 dirty he was, too," but he had not been able to see exactly where he went after- 

 wards, and there was a check, worse luck, in consequence. However, as soon 

 as the huntsman had satisfied himself that the fox had gone towards the Dairy 

 House and Potter's, he cast beyond Alkmonton bottoms, down-wind, and hit off 

 the line, but the pursued had put some distance between himself and his pursuers. 

 Casting on across the Alkmonton-Longford road, he hit him oft' again, and for 

 a few fields Yeaveley-way things looked better, but a stern chase is a long chase, 

 and it was evident that the fox had got too far ahead. Bentley Car was tried 

 again as a forlorn hope, and that was the end of it. Twenty minutes, or possibly 

 only fifteen — the official time-keeper was otherwise engaged — but it was merry 

 while it lasted, and, with just a bit of good luck, they would have made it very 

 interesting for the fox. 



Tuesday, Bramshall Village. They found in Philips' Gorse, and ran sharply 

 to ground at Field. Had the earths only been stopped, there was every chance 

 of a good run and a kill, for scent was more than useful. It is enough to make 

 Job himself swear to see fox after fox get off" like this. At a rough guess, close on 

 twelve brace of foxes have been run to ground up to date. What chance is there 

 to kill a fox after a chase when some friendly refuge offers itself as soon as he is 

 pressed ? The rest of the day was spent in the woods with no particular result. 



But Saturday was another affair altogether, we have not had such a day in 

 the woods for a long time. There was a scent ; the little bitches chased like fire 

 when occasion served, kept well together, and turned like harriers. The earths 

 were stopped, when their tired fox tried them as a dernier ressori, and the con- 

 sequence was they killed him handsomely. Eunning heel and trying back is 

 contrary to the true spirit of fox-hunting, but both of them sometimes occur in a 

 day's sport, so even now there is nothing for it but to go back from the kill to 

 the find and try to unravel the skein. Well, to begin with, unluckily the Master 



