COLONEL FAIRFAX'S MASTERSHLP. 



171 



the campaign against the cubs commencing at 4-45 a.m. on 

 Saturday, August 31st, at the Common Wood, Escrick. A 

 very wet morning and a bad scent prevented them getting 

 blood, and the sport was nothing to speak of, though the 

 young hounds did as well as could have been looked for 

 under such circumstances. The early part of the cubbing 

 season was not distinguished by very good sport ; foxes were 

 fairly plentiful in most parts of the country, and hounds got 

 plenty of blood. The record of the following day is well 

 worth reading", more perhaps as showing the care and attention 

 which the writer bestowed upon every minute detail connected 

 with hounds in the kennel and in the field, than for sport 

 which it describes. It will be noticed that if there was a 

 scarcity of foxes in some places, Grafton was evidently not 

 one of them : — 



' Thursday, October 24th. Grafton Whin. Good show of foxes. 

 ' Ran rings round whin, and killed one in open. Drew 

 ' all Croft's coverts blank. Found in Dale, ran towards 

 ' Lylands, and lost near Croft's coverts. Very heavy rain. 

 ' Trotted off to Thorpe Green. Found two cubs, and after 

 ' some good work ran into one in the open, near earths. 

 ' Found near Farrer's. Ran up on to hill, Whixley way. 

 ' Here he was headed, and retraced his steps ; swam the 

 ' pond at Kirb}^ and we lost him in road by lodge. Bitches 

 ' rather tired. Is Fallible, after all, a good stallion ? We 

 ' shall see. Young hounds require patience and careful 

 ' handling in the field just now, or they may soon be tired 

 ' if galloped about after fresh foxes. Very wet day.' 



Events showed that Colonel Fairfax need not have had 

 a moment's uneasiness respecting the hound whose merits he 

 was one of the first to recognise. In 1881 five-and-a-half 

 couples of hounds, descended from his sons or daughters, 

 were put forward, and of these a couple-and-a-half were from 

 the bitches who had tired a little on the day in question ; 

 whilst in the following year, ten out of the twelve couples 



