1 66 HISTORY OF THE YORK AND AINSTY HUNT. 



' back, the hounds hit upon their fox, Frantic pulling 

 ' him out from under the ditch bank where he had 

 ' squatted, so they bowled him over. Good run. One hour, 

 ' twenty minutes. Seven and a half miles. Dick Oliver 

 'pleased. Drew Dent, Selcarrs, found, away to Cattal, but 

 ' getting on to foiled ground did no more, so home. Dogs 

 ' worked well. Forester and Frantic especially.' 



There was fair sport in February, but the most interesting 

 fact recorded in the diary is the great improvement made in 

 a hound Colonel Fairfax had obtained from Mr. Piatt. On 

 his first appearance he says of him that he ' is a failure, 

 noisy, and tires.' Three weeks later we read that ' Gameboy, 

 from Mr. Piatt, is a most excellent dog ; shall use him, most 

 certainly.' It would look as if Gameboy had been rather 

 strange to the country at first, and probably his delinquencies 

 on his first appearance were due to his shyness. No hounds 

 by him, however, appear to have been entered. 



The season ended on Saturday, April 15th, with a bye- 

 day at Acaster, and a good day it was for the time of year. 

 They began with a smart run from Stub Wood by Askham 

 Bogs to Askham Mill, where they killed ; and they had other 

 two runs, marking both their foxes to ground after nice 

 gallops, a good record for the middle of April. During the 

 season they hunted one hundred and twenty-four days, were 

 stopped by frost four days, and by fog one. They killed 

 forty-eight-and-a-half brace of foxes, and ran fifteen brace to 

 ground, and they had never a blank day. 



1877-78. — A very late start was made this season, and it 

 was not till September 15th that they were able to begin 

 with the cubs. Even then all the barley was standing, and 

 the standing corn interfered with operations for some weeks. 

 They did some useful work on their opening morning, and 

 got hold of a cub. Stub Wood being the venue. The young 

 entry framed well, and Colonel F'airfax was now getting a 

 very good pack of hounds together, the Belvoir Fallible 



