268 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



and deep, and looked like fox-hunting ; the fields were large, with a 

 fair share of grass. Contrary to expectation, we drew some very- 

 likely coverts without finding ; at last a fox went gallantly away 

 from Foxyhill. The first half hour was an arrant burst. Hounds 

 could not well go faster, and the check was only momentary. One 

 gentleman, a little over anxious, had got too forward on the line, but 

 he was let off better than he would have been in some countries 

 which I know. " Hold hard. Sir," said the Master ; " Venus has it 

 under your horses feet I " — " Ah ! " said I, " Venus is always kind to 

 fox-hunters ; " and away we went again. Wishing to make this 

 part of my story short, at the end of rather better than fifty minutes, 

 our fox crawled, dead beat, into Elstob whm," where the hounds 

 instantly changed to a fresh one. We ran this fox one hour and 

 three minutes, and killed him in as fine style as ever a fox was 

 killed ; and out of upwards of one hundred horsemen who started 

 from the covert's side, only fifteen were able to give any account of 

 either hounds or fox — having been fairly rim away from by the 

 pack, and scattered in all directions about the country. As is always 

 the case on these occasions, some ludicrous scenes were presented, 

 and I shall avail myself of my licence to place one or two of them 

 on paper. 



The first half hour of this day gave the hounds a good chance to 

 get well away with their fox, which we all know is greatly in favour 

 of a handsome finish. We had a good deal of old grass, with roomy 

 fields ; and the fences, though not particularly large, were such as 

 obliged us to take with caution, and of course stopped the speed of 

 the horsemen. On the one side or the other of a great many of 

 them, gorse was planted by the sides of the ditches, which rendered 

 them so blind that we were obliged to walk our horses into the 

 gorse, before they could rise at their leaps. The scent was also 

 good — not perhaps what could be termed a burning one, but such as 

 enabled a pack like this to hold on with their fox, with their heads 



* Elstob whin afforded a capital day's sport to the Lambton hounds on the 

 19th of November, 1822. They killed their fox after a run of two hours and 

 thirty-five minutes ; when some were planted, many had enough, and none 

 went better than the gallant Captain Healy on a bay mare, who rode best, to 

 the admiration of all who lived with the hounds. This fox ran twenty-five 

 miles of country. 



