HUNTING LOCALITIES 183 



got in touch ten minutes later, were going best pace 

 westwards, over a good country. In some fifty minutes 

 they arrived at the Brighton main line, which they 

 crossed at Gatwick racecourse, the field riding through 

 the paddock, the gates of which were open, and out 

 on to the course. Near the top bend of the course 

 hounds turned southwards, and the fox began to dodge 

 for the first time. But scent was very good, and 

 exactly an hour and twenty minutes from the find he 

 was killed on the outskirts of Crawley, just where the 

 Burstow and the Crawley and Horsham countries join. 

 It was quite early in the day, and Mr. Hoare decided 

 to go back to the country he had come from, so that a 

 trot of something like an hour and a half was the next 

 item on the programme. Many of the field dropped 

 off, and it was after three o'clock before another fox was 

 found in a covert near New Chapel Green. There was 

 a tremendous row in covert, and Mr. Hoare came on to 

 the road saying that hounds had divided, that he had 

 seen both foxes, but that he did not feel well, and was 

 going home. After a while hounds got away with one 

 of the foxes on the eastern side of the covert and ran by 

 the Bellagio estate to Hammerwood, and thence to 

 Cowden in the West Kent country. Beyond this place 

 it is impossible to say where they went, for none of 

 the few who were left knew an inch of the country, and 

 it was rapidly becoming dark. But hounds were carry- 

 ing such a head that White (their huntsman that 

 season, and before that with the defunct Goodwood 

 pack) was unable to get very near them. Luckily they 

 killed their fox in a hedgerow, and he was quickly dis- 

 posed of in the twilight, and then came the question of 

 getting home. No one of the small party knew where 

 he was, and it was long enough before we found a 



