SIR THOMAS MOSTYN 125 



but, as an Oxford man observed, " there is a gallows good country 

 about it, and the foxes never liang." We found a brace whilst I 

 was with them, which immediately faced the open, but we had no 

 scent to follow them ; and, after almost all the field had retired, 

 another most gallant fox went away from the great See Woods, and 

 led them a dance till dark. Snow fell in the night, which accounted 

 for our lack of the needful for blood. 



A few days' frost and a little excursion into Worcestershire kept 

 me from hounds till the 11th, when I met Sir Thomas at Horton 

 Common. This also is termed a rough place — not fit for a gentle- 

 man ; but it is very fit for a sportsman, and a fox went imvtediatehj 

 away. Being pressed,- however, he got home again, after a short 

 but sharp ring. Our second fox went over Brill Hill — a country so 

 distressing to horses that Lord Jersey has been heard to say a man 

 should be mounted on an eagle to see hounds run over it ivith a 

 scent. Although this was not a favorable day for hounds, there 

 were strong symptoms of distress, and the lancet was pretty freely 

 made use of. One horse lay down in the field, but recovered ; and 

 another was found with his head sticking in a black-thorn hedge, 

 like a pheasant in a bush, neither disposed to get forwards nor 

 backwards. I understood this is esteemed a good horse in the 

 Duke of Beaufort's country ; but a good hunter there and a good 

 hunter Jicre may be quite different animals. 



On Saturday the 12th I turned out with Sir Thomas again at 

 Frinkford Bridge. We had twenty-five minutes very quick with our 

 first fox, but lost him by a change, and our second went directly to 

 ground. I saw something, however, that left its mark. I saw an 

 Oxford man ride at a strong stile at the rate of twenty miles an 

 hour, and his horse never rose twelve inches from the ground ! 

 The lyurl ivas tremendous : but the object was attained, for they 

 both landed on the right side, and neither man nor horse was 

 hurt. Tliey sa?/ " there's a Providence sits up aloft ;" and it mnsi 

 be so ! 



I saw another thing worthy of record on this day. Wishing to 

 see the hounds draw a fine piece of gorse, I rode to the lower end 

 of it with Wingfield, when a fence presented itself in our line — 

 the only ways of passing which were by dismounting and creeping 



