124 HISTORY OF THE YORK AND ATNSTY HUNT. 



' has been so far carried out that the Bedale have met in 

 ' the northern part, and Mr. G. Lane Fox last week brought 

 ' his hounds into the Ainsty side, and, I hear, had a very 

 ' capital day, though, from being away in Holderness, I 

 ' was unable to meet either his or the Bedale. It is a 

 ' curious thing that on the day Mr. Fox's hounds were 

 ' here, and able to race into their foxes with a burning 

 ' scent, we in the Holderness country could not run a yard. 

 ' But such is the uncertainty of hunting ; and there are 

 ' places over which hounds will run, let the day be good, 

 ' bad, or indifferent. 



' As had been arranged, Mr. Hall brought his pack to 

 ' York on Tuesday last, and Dringhouses, about a mile 

 ' from the city, and just beyond Knavesmire, was selected 

 ' for the fixture, the time being twelve o'clock, to allow of 

 ' their coming by train that morning. From about eleven 

 ' York looked as though it had been taken possession of 

 ' by a besieging army, who in their scarlet uniforms had 

 ' scattered themselves entirely throughout the city. The 

 ' station was crowded by horse-boxes from all parts — 

 ' sixteen or over, I believe, coming by the Hull and 

 ' Beverley line, and every one of them full ; while not a 

 ' few of the inhabitants, who did not venture to the meet, 

 ' patronised the station to see the arrival of the scarlet 

 ' crowd. From the time I have named a continuous stream 

 ' of horsemen — mounted on every description of nag, from 

 ' the slashing three-hundred-guinea hunter to the unpre- 

 ' tending pony — poured along Micklegate, and through the 

 ' bar into the more open suburbs ; and when the hill 

 'beyond the racecourse was reached, and the contingent 

 ' from Bramham Moor and the southern side met us, the 

 ' crowd was immense. Long lines of carriages, with all 

 ' the principal families of the neighbourhood, were inter- 

 ' spersed with the humbler flies, gigs, and carts from the 

 ' town ; and amongst the latter class many a fair damsel 

 'looked all the brighter for the pleasure derived from 

 ' seeing a meet of hounds for the first time, while in the 

 ' carriage company the brilliant toilets of the ladies caused 

 ' a pleasing relief to the "pink" of the men. How many 

 ' could have been present it is impossible to say, and I 

 ' heard it variously estimated at from three up to six 



