1820] THE FIRST WILL SMITH. 43 



they could not make Smith hear, as he was tlien makino 

 the best of his way to Irby Holme. 



Not content with this, the other pack brought off an 

 equally fine run the next day from Croxby Pond. They 

 found at once, but killed their fox at Cuxwold ; he had 

 been in a snare, and had got a stiff knee. Then they 

 found a brace of foxes in Peterhills, and, after hustling 

 them round the covert for a while, went off on the line 

 of one that had stolen quietly away. Crossing Ravendale 

 Field, and leaving Ashby Cottagers' Plats on the right, 

 hounds turned short to the left through Bacon Holt, and 

 by Mr. Brownlow's house, turned right-handed on the 

 brook side nearly to Hatcliffe mill, and went over the 

 brook, with Beelsby Covert on the right, towards Irby 

 Holme. The fox turned short back one field from the 

 Holme, and with Beelsby Covert on the right, ran right- 

 handed round Welbeck Hill towardy Irby, and then left- 

 handed to Laceby. In the gardens here they changed, 

 hounds going away with their fox in view. They had 

 then been running an liour and twenty-five minutes, and 

 now settled down to go at a tremendous pace, right-handed 

 by the brook and straight through both Laceby Cottagers' 

 Plats and Bradley Wood. Skirting the Southwells, they 

 pressed on hotly towards Holton Cross, near which village 

 the fox was headed and turned back, with Waltham on 

 the right, to Barnoldby. The fox was now sinking fast, 

 and finding the hounds to be rapidly overhauling him, he 

 doubled back to AValtham, and with the hounds catching 

 him fast, went to ground near the road. They had been 

 running this fox hard for fifty minutes, and all the horses 

 were well beat, some being terribly exhausted. 



March 27th provided a good three hours' hunt from 

 Bradley Wood to Coates Bogs, and up and down the 

 marshes as far as Jenny Hill and Burkinshaw's covert, 

 till the fox went to ground under the boards of the 

 Battery. He was bolted, hounds ran him in view for 

 nearly a mile, and then killed him. 



The season finished on April 28th, a bad, hot, dry. 



