220 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



him, we returned to the park, to another fox which had been seen 

 there, and he went away in view. 



Nothing short of Leicestershire, or some other very crack country, 

 could have shown a prettier thing than we had with this our third 

 fox ; and at the end of about forty minutes we turned him up also — 

 a singular circumstance occurring at the finish. Not two minutes 

 before he died, and in full view of those who were close with the 

 hounds, this fox leaped a five-barred gate without touching it (as a 

 greyhound would leap it), as much as to say, " this is my last effort 

 for my life ! " 



It has so happened, that previous to this season I never hunted 

 with the Cheshire hounds. As a pack, their reputation has not 

 been great, but considerable allowance must be granted them. 

 Their late manager, a most excellent sportsman of the Old School, 

 became, in the language of the day, sloiu, and they were hunted by a 

 man sadly below the mark. Were I to hazard an opinion, T should 

 say, they never were so good as they now are, under the manage- 

 ment of Sir Harry Mainwaring, and hunted by Will Head, formerly 

 in the service of Sir Bellingham Graham, and three years head 

 whipper-in to the Cheshire. To the eye, they come more under the 

 denomination of a useful than a handsome pack of hounds, though 

 certainly by no means wanting in the common requisites of fox- 

 hounds. On the first day I was out with them, I considered them 

 unhandy ; but it was rather a wild morning, and two scents a-foot. 

 This also should be said. Will Head has only hunted them three 

 seasons, and Eome was not built in a day. 



I considered the condition of the Cheshire hounds jparticularly 

 good. Indeed, I must go so far as to pass over all other packs save 

 his Grace of Beaufort's, which I had seen up to that period, and 

 give the preference to them in this respect. The brightness of their 

 skins, and their general healthy and even state, are worthy of all 

 the praise I can bestow^ ; and the more ci'edit is due to Will for this, 

 having three kennels to boil in — some of them none of the best, and 

 consequently a deal of travelling — to say nothing of being often 

 obliged to feed at irregular hours. 



One other fact I must also speak to. With the exception of one 

 mistake, no hounds in any country could have done their work in a 



