65 



" A fox for a hundred ! they know it the pack, 



Old " Chorister" always speaks true ; 

 And the whip from the corner is told to come back, 



And forbid to go on for a view. 

 Now, the varmint is spied as he crosses the ride — 



A tough old campaigner I trow — 

 Long, limber, and gi'ey, see him stealing away, 



Half a minute ! and then Tally-ho ! " 



The moment the hounds went out at the gate they picked 

 it up, ran up the road a little, and then turned to the right, 

 round the back of Houston House; and going through the 

 small plantation, they crossed over the bye-road from Houston 

 to Barrochan, and raced over to the main road, leaving the 

 farm-house to the left, where at our first steeple-chases we used 

 to get weighed. The fox then bent up towards Olives, but 

 turned down to the left, and went over the old steeple-chase 

 ground across the Wreas Road, down over a rather nasty bit 

 in the hollow to Botherwickfield. Up to this point they had 

 been going a " clipper;" but as the fences were small, most of 

 the field managed to live with them. The fox did not hang 

 in covert, but broke away to the right, and, leaving Ennely to 

 the left, went up the hill to the Wreas. "Hoick-forrard," no 

 chance of getting a pull at your horse, as they went on without 

 a check down through the stacks at Shovelbread Farm ta 

 Muirtown. The hounds went through the north end and up 

 to Elphinstone. A number of the field at this point, not 

 being very well forv>rard, rode straight through Kilallan old 

 wood up to Elphinstone, and "knicked" in. The hunted fox 

 did not go into the covert, but turned to the right (a fresh fox 

 jumped up on the moor above Elphinstone, " Chorister" and 

 another hound going away with him to the Kilmalcolm strips), 

 went down over the Dargavel Burn, up over Barscube Hill, 

 and down through Netherton Covert to West Ferry, where this 

 gallant fox saved his brush by going to ground ; being com- 

 pletely out of the country which the Colonel intended drawing, 

 the earths were open. It was generally agTeed that this was 

 the run of the season. Time, fifty minutes ; distance eight 

 miles, with hardly what you would call a check. The hounds 

 H 



