146 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



through and feet out-planted. Beyond Dodford Holt Edward 

 (the second whip) came up, with about a dozen horsemen and a 

 few couple of hounds from Mantel's Heath. Information as to 

 this long-travelling fox was again forthcoming, but with the 

 extraordinary breadth of discrepancy that attaches itself to this 

 more than to any known subject. " Not long," of course ; but 

 the difference between "Well, may be twenty minutes," and "I 

 don't know as he's got across that there next field," was so wide 

 that only an inquirer long intimate with the newly-enfran- 

 chised Northamptonshire labourer could possibly believe that 

 the two answers so divergent were intended to convey one and 

 the same fact. 



The huntsman, pro tern., however, not only refused to 

 be daunted by the first reply, but with a thrill of hope 

 accepted the second, jammed spurs into his jaded mare, 

 viewed his beaten fox crawling up the next hedgerow, and three 

 minutes later had the delight of taking him away from hounds. 

 One hour and fifty -five minutes, they made it and never was 

 a fox better earned or more deservedly handled. Poor Beers, 

 though ! was he not more to be pitied on his bed of pain (with 

 a broken leg) at that moment than even the scores of good 

 sportsmen still wandering sadly over the fog-laden country ? 

 An hour's search for the second horses proving of no avail, 

 hounds were ordered home, and the day ended. But that 

 draggled little brush in Mrs. Bunbury's possession should be 

 held a proud trophy through many a year to come carrying 

 memory back to a triumphant Merry Christmastide, 1885. 



That hounds were in full cry next day I happen to know 

 through the fact of my horses meeting them on the road, much 

 to the tribulation of the man in charge, who appears to have 

 seen, thanks to a watering bridle and " the gaffer's best 'oss," a 

 good deal more of the chase than he desired. Of its incidents I 

 could not learn much, as his narration was confined purely to 

 his own unwilling adventures and to the perils encountered by 



