THE QUORN 149 



horse, with the hope of seeing them "get together" a httle, as we 

 provincials call it ; but my hopes I found were vain. Away went the 

 Hite, and I one field behind them, in company with the body of 

 the hounds, about a hundred horsemen on the right and on the 

 left, and a whipper-in endeavouring, first by rating, then by cheering, 

 to get his hounds up. It was, however, altogether a beautiful sight. 

 To see the pace these men went ; to see the pace at which they rode 

 at their fences, so different to all other countries ; to see them charge 

 a wide and awkw^ard brook without deigning to look at it ; to see 

 some horses in, some turning around, not liking it, and about a 

 dozen w^ell over, and going by the side of, if not a little before, the 

 hounds up one of these large grass fields — is, I repeat, a beautiful 

 sight, and one that only Leicestershire can shew. We had about half 

 an hour, at a very good pace, when we came to a check in the village 

 of Stouton — often, as I understood, fatal to sport ; and such was the 

 case here. The redeeming moment was passed, and we could not 

 hit him further. 



On the 23rd met the Quorn again at Beeby. We had liked to 

 have found — not a fox, but a vara avis in this country — a blank day. 

 We drew Beeby, Scraptorf, and Eolston Spinnies blank, and found a 

 bitch-fox in the Coplow at five o'clock in the evening, when of 

 course we whipped-oft". Mr. Osbaldeston observed that there was a 

 moon, and he would draw till the next morning, but he ivould find a 

 fox ; and he did find one. We had a bit of a lark over a fine country 

 as we went home, and so finished this day. 



On the 24th met Lord Lonsdale's pack at Coles Lodge, and found 

 in Lawn Woods. 



On the 25th met the Quorn again at Owelthorpe in Nottingham- 

 shire. This day presented to me a spectacle I had never seen nor 

 heard of before — being nothing less than one pack of fox-hounds for 

 our morning, and another for our evening's diversion. About two 

 o'clock a clean pack of hoiinds, wdth a clean stud of horses, as also 

 several second horses belonging to those who were in the secret, 

 were turned out from the inn at Widmerpool for our evening's 

 sport ! 



From what I saw of the Widmerpool country on this day, I could 

 easily imagine how deep it must have been in the course of the last 



