106 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



Harrold turnpike for Odell; but a few fields before he could 

 reach the woods the hounds killed him. I have also run foxes 

 from the Harrold Woods, and from Nottingfox Wood, and 

 killed them in Lord Fitzwilliam's open country, and in the 

 vicinity of Shelton Gorse. My brother Moreton did a very 

 quick thing one day, when sent on down- wind by me, in a wood 

 called Puddington Great Hayes. I should state, that when in 

 my power, I always drew covers up- wind, but in heavy wood- 

 lands it is not in a huntsman's province to draw all up-wind. 

 My brother was posted where he could command the greatest 

 extent of rides, and I had not spoken to the hounds ten minutes, 

 and had but just come within his hearing, when there came 

 cautiously into the ride a brace of foxes, their heads towards 

 me, and intently listening. They were no great distance apart, 

 and not wishing to start them sooner than he could help, my 

 brother watched them. He had not observed them a minute or 

 more when circumstances enabled him to distinguish the vixen 

 from the dog fox ; and cracking his whip the foxes disappeared on 

 separate sides of the ride. He then galloped to the spot, and 

 his horn and holloa bringing the hounds, he turned them on the 

 dog fox, when we had a very fine run and killed him. 



Towards the end of a season in Yardley Chase, which was a 

 neutral woodland between the Duke of Grafton and myself, and 

 chiefly filled at the close of the season with foxes driven there 

 from the countries of either pack, it was quite necessary to have 

 as many eyes that could be trusted for a fox as possible. 

 Boulton, Ready, Whitworth, Brown, and Dick Perkins and 

 others, were always put 011 this duty ; and Longland, the farmer 

 who lived at Cowper's Oak, always had his eyes open in that 

 likely vicinity. Yardley Chase was the best scenting-ground of 

 all, and the most beautiful woodland in which to see hounds 

 work, that could be. The close of the season was the period 

 when this chase came into the greatest requisition, and it never 

 failed me in sport. At a meet near Cowper's Oak, a curious 

 circumstance happened. The wind suiting, instead of going to 

 the Oak as I had fixed, I stopped under the hedge of the first 



