138 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



great trade in that vicinity. However, news in five 

 years once reached me that a fox had been padded 

 there or thereabouts ; so it not being much out of my 

 way, I threw the hounds in. I had not done so a 

 moment, Avhen I saw by the manner of the hounds 

 that a fox had been there, and was not far off; and 

 suddenly before a hound spoke, though all were very 

 busy, I saw George Carter hold up his cap to me and 

 sit stock still with it so. I knew very well that he 

 vicAved the fox with the hounds close round him, and 

 feared that he would be chopped. A hound who had 

 drawn up to his kennel spoke, and oii the fox went 

 like a shot, expedited by George's horn and holloa 

 of "away." Away we did go at his brush, and, 

 instead of going to my adjacent woodlands, we crossed 

 the brook at the bridges, and Landed right well into 

 the Pychley open country. It was then all tip-top 

 speed and no mistake; but we had not run more 

 than five and twenty minutes, when we had an ex- 

 traordinary and an abrupt check, for which there 

 was no visible way of accounting. I am inclined to 

 think that we were so close at him, that the fox 

 threw himself down in a hedge, and the hounds 

 overshot him. This suspicion made me careful not 

 to cast too wide, and I resolved to hold them at a 

 hand gallop for a narrow circular cast. Siwell Wood 

 was too far to count on as a sure point, and to deal 

 with a narrow fact was my first duty. I held them 

 off to the right, having seen an inclination in his 

 line that way ; and in coming round to finish the 

 cast to the left, the hounds almost slipped up on their 

 sides, so suddenly and full did they catch his line ; 

 and away they raced with it again, inclining to the 

 first-mentioned direction. A field or two further, 



