42 SYSTEM OF KEXNEL AND 



sundry little checks whicli did occur, and always 

 will occur in very long runs. At times hounds 

 are checked entirely ; at others, their speed is 

 diminished by stained ground, a piece of fallows, 

 a turnpike road, and swinging round when the fox 

 is headed off his line, which, though not quite 

 amounting to a check, causes a slight hesitation. 

 Then we must bear in mind that bullfinches and 

 heavy fences stop hounds as well as horses, and all 

 these seconds and minutes so lost, when added 

 together, make a considerable sum total. That the 

 Pytchley was a right good run, and the fox one of 

 the right sort, there can be no question ; that the 

 hounds did their work well, and the master rode 

 gallantly throughout, is also equally apparent ; and 

 save for being chased by a sheep-dog, the war- 

 whoop must have resounded over the carcase of the 

 Waterloo hero. 



Having been accustomed to long days and long 

 runs, we see nothing very wonderful in this fox- 

 chase, which reminds us of similar ones in days of 

 " auld lang syne," many of which are recorded in 

 my " Kecollections of a Foxhunter." One day per 

 week throuohout the season our hounds had to do 

 from fourteen to eighteen miles before drawing a 

 covert. Now, fourteen miles to the place of -meet- 

 ing, and fourteen back again, at six miles an hour 

 — our usual rate of travelling by road — would 

 amount very nearly to the Pytchley run ; and 

 then we had an interlude of some twelve or four- 

 teen miles for the finding and finishinor off our fox. 

 Upon these occasions the hounds got their suppers 



