SOME BY-DAYS 125 



going out — in fact, had fixed on having a day with 

 the Duke's ; but from my dressing-room window at 

 8.15 I saw a brace of foxes walk down a furrow 

 in the plough on the opposite side of the glen 

 and lie down together in a hollow. I saw they 

 could be approached from above by making a big 

 detour ; this I did on the pony with only Jack as 

 follower and eight couple of selected sound hounds. 

 It took half-an-hour to get round, and being directed 

 by signal from the bath-room window of the house, 

 I trotted quickly down along the very furrow in 

 which the unsuspecting pair were lying, and the 

 hounds were on the top of them before they knew 

 it. They diverged right and left, the vixen going 

 straight down into the glen, and the dog, to his 

 credit be it said, taking straight across the plough, 

 drawing six couple away from his mate. These 

 six couple hunted him well, sticking closely to him 

 round the Dunion and Bedrule Hill, bringing him 

 back to the glen, where they continued to press him 

 for another half-hour, and being reinforced by all 

 the loose terriers belonging to the establishment, 

 they hunted him from one hiding-place to another 

 until they killed him, about two hours after he had 

 first been viewed. Few of those friends whom I 

 met in the Duke's field about midday, to whom 

 I related my story, seemed to think I was not 

 romancing. 



Pleasant as were these by-days, often providing 

 the most unexpected sport and satisfactory finishes, 

 they were seldom so enjoyable as the regular hunting 

 days. Many of the one-horse followers used to go 

 home after a morning's hunt, leaving a few keen 



