EEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 105 



though I knew there were cubs there or thereabouts, 

 — stump-bred foxes shift a long way sometimes in the 

 course of a night, — I had difficulty, from the want of 

 a body of hounds to draw, in finding one. Having 

 but one thing left for it, I rode into the thick of the 

 cover myself. In this way, with not more than two 

 or three hounds drawing wide of me, I had forced my 

 passage into the middle of " Harrold Dungey," when, 

 within ten yards of my foot, I heard an eager whine 

 and a dash as of a hound at something, and then such 

 a crash — for about forty couples of hounds were 

 round me — as made my heart almost jump out of my 

 mouth. Full cry in a moment was the pack, for the 

 cub was in the midst of them, and right lustily did I 

 encourage them. The rain had ceased, it had all 

 come down, and though the woods were wet, there 

 was a scent. The first ride I got into, how eagerly 

 I watched, to view the fox, ascertain if it was a cub, 

 and see what hounds were leading. The cry came 

 rio-ht for where I stood, but the fox had crossed be- 

 fore I ffot there. The first two bitches that came into 

 the ride, working evidently as if they were used to it, 

 were Buxome and Brilliant, given me by Mr. Russell of 

 Brancepeth. Beautiful they were to look at, — but be- 

 cause they were in their prime, this being their second 

 season, I had set them down in my own mind as 

 drafted for some fault. They never showed a fault 

 with me, but two better foxhounds never entered a 

 kennel. We worked that cub for upwards of an hour 

 and a half as if the hounds were tied to him, and I 

 don't think we ever had another on foot ; and at last, 

 while he was threading a hedge that ran from one 

 cover to another, a shepherd's dog caught view of 

 him, and coursed him certainly to a gate of a cover 



