274 FOX-HOUXD, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



AND MORE GRAFTON. 



A VERY pretty hunting run of forty-five minutes and a kill in 

 the open was the outcome of the Grafton Monday (Dec. 12). 

 To pull down a fox in that time of itself proves more than 

 "fair pace." Yet " a quick hunting run" must be the defini- 

 tion, rather than a " gallop " or a " burst," as we are given to 

 employ the terms. It was, from .a very justifiable point of 

 view, as unlikely a morning for scent as has been dealt us this 

 season. The ground was half frozen, and wind and weather- 

 glass alike unsteady. Yet hounds ran hard in covert, and at 

 times carried quite a head outside. To drive to covert was 

 about as safe as going by train on a cheap track in Western 

 America. Both down-hill and up, it paid to take the grass 

 siding in preference to the road and the damp breeze nearly 

 froze your fingers to the ribbons. 



Maidston was the meet (where the village boys had made 

 beautiful slides on every yard of meadow) : Sea well Wood was 

 the draw down the wind, as it blew at the moment. Two or 

 three foxes fled at the far end, and together the pack settled on 

 a pleasant and easy line to Litchborough, left that village j ust 

 on the right, and worked their way (with one trifling check) 

 across the valley for Stowe Wood. Skirting the lower end of 

 this, they topped the hill overlooking Everdon with again 

 three foxes before them. It seemed to me an instinct I 

 suppose, though I need scarcely hesitate to employ the only 

 proper term it was real talent on the part of the huntsman 

 that he now took the pack off a new line and carried it forward 

 to strike the true one. And then came all the fun of the fair 

 caused mainly by the little Everdon brook about two yards 

 of water and two more of sloping rat-holey banks. The turf 

 was greasy, and horses naturally timid at water, as is in proper 

 keeping with an education in the Midlands were even more 

 nervous and helpless than usual. One here and one there slipped 

 in, a couple fell back, a dozen got over, and. the rest remained 



