148 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



without a change of wind, and the chance of scent is 

 better. I once saw in cover a tremendous scent in a 

 deep snow, thus : A heavy fall of snow had so cum- 

 bered the great woods, and lain, from the severity of 

 subsequent frost, that in Odell and the Harrold Avoods 

 it was up to a man's knees. On finding it did not 

 ball, and the hounds and men could run and ride 

 among it very well, I took my entire pack, of about 

 sixty couples of hounds, up to Odell great wood, and 

 found a fox. It was a still, clear day ; and oh, what 

 a cry! In places where the snow had drifted, the 

 hounds yelled in their impatience to get through, and 

 they worked their fox for an hour, as if they had been 

 tied to him. To save himself, he broke for Lousacre ; 

 and the instant he was out of cover, from the finest 

 scent I ever saw on the other side the ditch, landed 

 in the open not a hound could own the line. I made 

 my first cast on the pads of the fox in the snoAV. 

 Through Lousacre, the hounds ran again like mad ; 

 but the instant the fox broke on the Col worth side, it 

 was all up again. I therefore cast back for the Avood, 

 in the hope of another fox ; but not finding one, I 

 went home, the purpose of keeping my hounds in 

 Avind having been answered. This hunt, in so deep a 

 snoAV, Avas a curious and a beautiful thing to see and 

 hear. 



George Carter came to me at a lucky time. The 

 pack was made, and poAverful, from its activity, reso- 

 lution, and youth, the sport increased every day ; and, 

 as I said before, I Avas in clover. George Avas Avith 

 rae tAvo seasons, Avhen one day Lord James Fitzroy 

 paid a visit to my kennel. He said nothing whatever 

 to me ; but after he left, George Carter, to my sur- 

 prise, informed me that his lordship had made him 



