THE ACCIDENT AT NEWBY FERRY. 129 



' some nasty drains are crossed and a pretty piece of 

 ' country passed over, until we reach the Knaresborough 

 ' and Harrogate rail, where another check occurs. Over 

 ' this they are cast by a bridge on the right, and away 

 ' down some coldish grass fields, with fences lighter than 

 ' in the first burst, for which we are especially thankful, 

 ■ as the pace, though not racing, has told its tale in a 

 ' most unmistakable manner, and lots of grief has 

 ' occurred — some of it, I am sorry to say, falling to the 

 ' share of a lady. A lot of the field are making free 

 ' use of a green lane which runs parallel with the line, 

 ' when those who are riding to hounds, descending a 

 ' hill, are suddenly brought short up by a wide impracticable 

 ' beck or drain, with a stiff bullfinch on the landing side. 

 ' The lane riders now have a great deal the best of it, 

 'and nearly all those in the fields — myself, unfortunatel}^, 

 ' amongst them — -have to go back a considerable distance 

 'into the lane; and thus by the time we are over the 

 ' Hop Beck, by Scagglethorpe Bridge, the pack are far 

 ' ahead of us. Some few, 1 believe, got over or through 

 ' the beck, more to the right, but those who had hugged 

 'the lane all along had decidedly the advantage. Of 

 ' the hunting from here I saw but little, and it was only 

 ' as they were working him through a fir plantation, 

 ' just short of Red House, that I got to them again ; 

 ' and then in a field or two, and just as they were entering 

 ' Red House Woods, the order was given to whip off, 

 ' as the late Sir Charles Slingsl)y's sister, Mrs. Leslie, 

 ' was residing there. 



' All must approve the motive which caused the hounds 

 ' to be stopped, but none can help regretting that they 

 ' did not run into their fox ere such a cause became 

 ' necessary, for never did a pack of hounds hunt truer 

 ' or better ; and though the pace was, I believe, quite 

 ' as fast as any one wished it, they had to hunt as well, 

 ' and their noses were in continual request during the 

 ' run. In fact, it was just such a gallop as a lover of 

 ' hounds enjoys, quite fast enough to keep man and horse 

 ' going (it proved a great deal too fast for many — one, 

 ' I hear, died in the field), and yet the hounds had to 

 'hunt as well as run. The distance by the ordnance 



