1^6 Reminiscences of a 



night and a long draw, during which " Lively " caused 

 a lot of trouble with her temper, being disgusted at not 

 finding a fox ; but when the needful came to hand at Sandy 

 Lees, she was the first hound to speak to it, and first out 

 of the covert. Old Layman, who was poisoned, was the 

 sire of Lively, and had just the same temper on a riotous 

 or bad scenting day. Lively was by Layman — Ada. They 

 were a queer tempered family, as Lictor sire of Layman 

 was very shy, and would turn it up on very short notice. 

 Not the sort to breed from exactly, but still when they got 

 on to the line of a fox and settled down, it was poor fun 

 for the fox ! 



Well, to return to the day, after a long blank draw 

 hounds pushed a leash out of Sandy Lees, and we had a 

 tremendous run in the Hurworth country. The first point 

 was Goosepool, where hounds divided, a few couple sticking 

 to the hunted fox and killing him close by ; the body of the 

 pack went away with a fresh one, and ran a ring by 

 Fighting Cocks whin back to covert ; then on to Burn wood 

 and Farrer's whin, which was skirted within a field. Church 

 whin was the next point, and then on to Fighting Cocks, 

 where Charley went to ground in a drain which runs up to 

 the reservoir. The time from Sandy Lees was about two 

 hours. I see Claxon's diary says an hour and fifty minutes, 

 which will no doubt be exactly correct. He rode " Duchess," 

 a real good little mare, and I was on "Stewardess," and 

 had nothing to complain of. 



Altogether it was not a bad day for cub-hunting. Good 

 sport followed in November, and I have a keen recollection 

 of seventy odd minutes from Foxhill, and a kill near Elton 

 in the back lane, about the end of the month when I rode 

 " The Widow." 1 remember this day because we met at 



