NOTES. 409 



and up to the road \Yliere Mr. Aldridgc the farmer had viewed 

 the fox, and, consequently, by my watch, they reached the 

 road twenty minutes behind their fox, instead of five minutes. 

 Thus, by a judicious lift, fifteen minutes Avould have been 

 saved. The hounds then carried the line coldly over Chuton 

 Common, through Dr. Wyndham's, and along the harsh cold 

 ground between the Lymington road and the New Forest on 

 to Ashley Common. The distance, as the hounds ran, ring to 

 Mudeford and all, was perhaps seven or eight miles, done by 

 them at a very slow pace, but I suspect that the fox did the 

 distance at the very top of his speed ; for he fell back towards 

 his pursuers, and on seeing or hearing some shooters in a wood 

 ahead of him, was glad of the excuse to lie down. His method 

 of crossing the common showed uncertainty and distress, and, 

 refusing to take the brook at the foot of it, he went a long dis- 

 tance on its bank, and then retraced his steps; so closely did 

 he retrace his footsteps, that on the hounds returning with the 

 scent, Mr. Shedden made the remark to me, that " he feared it 

 was on heel." I said I thought the hounds were right, and that 

 they were so was proved by their not going all the way back ; 

 but on reaching about half way, they paused at a place on 

 the brook they had previously passed, and hit him over. We 

 all went through a sort of gateway or ford between the wood 

 and the hounds, and as we did so we met the fox not two 

 hundred yards before the pack. The fox either lay down, 

 or passed through some rough grass and thorns which hid 

 him ; the hounds were at a check, and Mr. Shedden touched 

 his horn. Seeing that the hounds did not come, I slipped 

 back, down the side of the wood ; but seeing a whipper-in 

 there, I went on and re-crossed the brook to look out that 

 way, and took my stand on a rise on the common, command- 

 ing a full view of Mr. Shedden and his hounds. 1 had not 

 been there a moment when I saw a labourer on the common 

 point with his hand towards Mr. Shedden, and halloo. I was 

 soon by the man's side and stopped his noise, for he as well 

 as myself then saw the fox showing every symptom of dis- 

 tress not a hundred yards from the hounds and Mr. Shedden, 

 trotting slowly over a cold wet fallow behind them, on and 



