364 THE OLD BERKS HUNT 



in the valley nearly a mile away. I held 

 hounds on to her, and we worked a line nicely 

 for six miles, when our fox got up in view and 

 we raced him to ground in an old ash tree 

 stump four miles further on, poked him out and 

 killed him in a mile. This fox must have 

 moved before we got into the wood. 



" Another curious contradiction of the recog- 

 nised rules concerning scent took place on 

 January the 8th, 1880, when all day hounds 

 ran better down wind than up. It was, how- 

 ever, quite a ' huntsman's scent,' and we killed 

 our first fox after a very good fifty minutes. 

 Our second fox, when very closely pursued 

 and very beaten, fell into an ice house, and 

 eight and a-half couple of hounds jumped in 

 after him into the pit, fourteen feet in depth. 

 We had to carry them out one by one, up a 

 ladder. Our third fox, after another good run, 

 bolted into a cottage and ran upstairs. He 

 was turned out ; but scent was too good, and 

 he was killed in less than fifteen minutes from 

 leaving the house. 



" Hounds ran particularly well and fast that 

 day, but the best day for pace I ever saw was 

 January the i8th, 1878. Early in the day the 

 scent was very moderate and we were slowly 

 hunting a fox into ' Sweet Shaw ' Covert ; 

 when in an instant there was a crash of music 



