76 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



the question. We found a fox in a fine piece of gorse ; but before 

 he could get out of it he died. There had been a fall of snow a 

 short time l^efore, which had pressed down the gorse on the meuses, 

 so that he was as it were stopped in — there being nothing else to 

 prevent him going away if he could have once got to the outside of 

 it. This cause was evident by the long time the hounds were in 

 coming to the horn after the fox had been chopped. We soon found 

 again, but all to no purpose, as we had not an atom of scent to serve 

 us over that ploughed country. 



I knew Sir John when he had a house for several seasons at 

 Bicester, hunting wath Sir Thomas Mostyn, when he rode very 

 hard. Some time since, he had the misfortune to break his thigh 

 as he was riding about his own grounds, and was attacked by typhus 

 fever afterwards, which he says has done his nerve no good. His 

 hounds are much admired for shape and make, very quick, and said 

 to be particularly powerful in covert, where no fox can stand them 

 long. He divides his kennel, and it was the dog pack on the day I 

 was out with him. An old friend of mine, a very good judge, who 

 has been hunting with them this season, told me their kennel 

 management must be superior: "for," said he, " they always look 

 well, and no hounds in England work so hard, or travel further, and 

 often through a dirty country, for Sir John will have a day's sport 

 if possible." My friend added, that one day this season, after a 

 capital run, and the hounds twenty miles from home. Sir John w^ent 

 and found another fox, and killed him, after a run of one hour and 

 three quarters, when the hounds had nearly as far to go home. He 

 declared he should have been ashamed to have asked any man to 

 have drawn for a second fox after the run they had had with the 

 first. This, however, not only shews power, but condition. 



A curious circumstance occurred with these hounds this spring. 

 A vixen fox was tally-ho'd away, with a cub in her mouth, which 

 she carried for a considerable distance, and saved. — Another of the 

 evils of spring hunting also occurred about the same time. A dog 

 fox was run to ground and dug for. In doing this, a vixen with seven 

 cubs wq^s stopped in, and all perished together. Let this be a caution 

 to all masters of hounds how they break ground for a fox ! I know 

 not which I detest most — to see a yelping cur in the shape of a 



