THE ACCIDENT AT NEWBY FERRY. 127 



'Wood, after having skirted the village of Alarston, nearly 

 'to Hessay, and then he turned on the right to Knapton, 

 ' and ringed round again towards RuiTorth, and we finally 

 ' gave him up between Rufforth and Knapton. The scent 

 ' was very cold, and though Backhouse and his pack tried 

 ' all they knew to bring him to hand, it was of no avail. 

 ' So many falls and so many loose horses I never saw 

 ' anywhere with hounds going slowl\' ; at one part of the 

 ' drain seven men were floundering about side by side, and 

 ' one man I saw catch a couple of horses and restore them 

 ' to their owners in the same field. Several got badly 

 ' stubbed — one, I was sorry to hear, so much so that 

 ' veterinary aid had to be called in. There was no one 

 ' charged these rough fences in better form than a 

 ' Mr. Johnson, I believe from Durham, who is such a 

 ' welter weight as you do not often see ; and powerful as 

 ' his grey is, it is astonishing how he goes in such style 

 ' under him. I hear that on Tuesday week he cut out all 

 ' the work in a very quick thing. 



' We then tried Grange Wood blank, and once more 

 ' back to Swan's Whin, which has often afforded two or 

 ' three good foxes in a day. On the present occasion, 

 ' however, it only held the brace seen in the morning ; and 

 ' though everyone thought Colton Hagg was the next 

 'draw, as it was said the Bogs were missed in the morning 

 ' on account of vixens, the hounds on reaching the York 

 ' and Tadcaster road were turned away on the left, and 

 ' thrown into Askham Bogs. This covert takes some little 

 ' time to draw, especially by hounds that are not used to 

 'it, and we stood chatting, for a considerable time in the 

 ' road ere a challenge was heard. Luckily, from falls and 

 ' other causes, the immense field of the morning had now 

 ' been considerably reduced, and there was some little 

 ' chance, if we got away, of a man being able to ride 

 ' without being knocked heels over head. Some few 

 ' minutes, very possibly ten, had been chatted through, when 

 ' one of those sudden impulses that seize us was observable, 

 ' and each man got his horse by the head and edged his 

 ' way through the crowd, prepared for a start. I never 

 ' heard of anyone who saw the fox break, but the magic 

 'signal, "he's away," was passed from one to the other. 



