ISOS] NIMROD LONG. 105 



On January 22nd Lord and Lady Yarborougli and 

 Nimrod Long went for a day with the Belvoir, enjoying a 

 fair day's sport from Croxton Park, of which an hour and 

 forty minutes with a kill near Melton, was the best. 



Frank Beers and Jack Backhouse were out at East 

 Hal ton village on February 8 th, but there was only 

 moderate sport on a bad scenting day. But there was 

 a hard day from Barrow Hall on February 21st, the 

 bitches bringing oft' a run of two hours and twenty 

 minutes from Goxhill, and another of two hours from 

 Houlton's covert ; and there was also a very fast thirty 

 minutes from Hell Furze to Ackthorpe Wood on March 3rd, 

 and Long says he never saw hounds go faster. 



Probably the best run of the season took place on 

 March 6th, from Swallow Cross-roads. It was some 

 time before hounds found a fox ; but when going off" to 

 draw Irby Holme they put up a fox out of a heap of 

 thorns, and getting a good start with him, raced away 

 through Irby Holme towards Beelsby, and left-handed by 

 the Hatclifie Plantation and the mill, over the Barton 

 street towards Brigsley. With Barnoldby on the left and 

 Waltham on the right, the bitches pressed on through 

 Bradley Gears to Bradley Wood, having come at racing 

 pace for thirty-five minutes ; but slower hunting followed. 

 At Laceby there was a long check ; but hounds got up to 

 their fox again in a plantation on the beck side, and they 

 raced him through Laceby village, first towards Bradley 

 AVood and then right-handed over the Barton street and 

 through Irby Holme to the village. Hounds then got a 

 view of their fox in a garden, and they raced him through 

 the village and pulled him down in a grass field outside, 

 having been running two hours all but five minutes. The 

 Hon. Mr. Pelham, Long, and his second whipper-in, had a 

 long way the best of it in the fast thing to Bradley Wood. 

 The last notable item of the season was the admirable 

 manner in which the lady pack " walked " a fox to death 

 in an hour and a quarter, on March 20th ; and the curtain 

 w^ent down on April 1st. 



