112 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



ever, 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, when 

 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 viewed 

 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 off 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 Pytchley 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 extraordinary and an abrupt check, for which there was no 

 visible way of accounting. I am inclined to think that we were 

 so close to 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 

 farther, I saw my second horse, who had come up by a fortunate 

 green lane, the one I was on having had enough of it; and 

 mounting him, I soon after passed Mr. Vivian, who was shooting, 

 and who called out, " You must have him, he's just before you 

 dead beat." A little farther on we caught sight of him a field 

 before the pack, and from that time either George Carter, Tom 

 Skinner, or myself had him in view till the hounds ran from 

 scent and killed him. It was rather more than forty minutes, 

 and as brilliant an affair as any could wish for. It cost me two 



